(Kirill in his 10 years speech as Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church.)
Last February 1st, Patriarch Kirill celebrated his 10 years at the head of the Russian Orthodox Church. The celebration was made at the State Palace in the Moscow Kremlin in presence of Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, Igor Dodon, President of Moldova, and political and religious authorities.
In his speech, Kirill said the two major Christianity's challenges today are the reintegration of the Church into society, bridging the gap between them and reintroducing in people the values defended by the Christian faith, and the supposed absolute science's authority, which proposes technical progress at the expense of the ethical principles and the dissemination of transhumanism, a philosophy which bets on the "improving" of the human nature. Most of his speech was dedicated to these matters.
At the beginning of his explanation, however, the Patriarch paid attention to the Ukraine's situation. He said that the new structure of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate (without quoting it directly), made official on last January 5th, consisted of a "pseudo-church structure consisting of schismatics". He blamed the Ukrainian authorities and the Constantinople Patriarchate for intruding into the canonical territory of the Ukrainian Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, and the Kyiv government for discriminating the Russian believers, take their churches and encourage inter-religious hatred.
The statements on Ukraine repeated the accusation of persecution to the Orthodox of the Russian Church by the Ukrainian government that Kirill disclosed in a letter sent on December 14th, 2018 to several political and religious leaders of the world, such as Pope Francis, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, the head of the World Council of Churches Olav Fyske Tveil, the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Angela Merkel, Emmanuel Macron, among others.
The presence of Putin and Dodon (Russian president's ally) in celebration of his enthronement, the political matter and the letter sent to civic and religious leaders show the Kirill's political action in national and foreign issues. Kirill is muche more than "only" the religious leader of the Russian Orthodox Church. He's also the disseminator of ideas which are shared by the Russian state, with whom he works in consonance.
In his speech, Kirill said the two major Christianity's challenges today are the reintegration of the Church into society, bridging the gap between them and reintroducing in people the values defended by the Christian faith, and the supposed absolute science's authority, which proposes technical progress at the expense of the ethical principles and the dissemination of transhumanism, a philosophy which bets on the "improving" of the human nature. Most of his speech was dedicated to these matters.
At the beginning of his explanation, however, the Patriarch paid attention to the Ukraine's situation. He said that the new structure of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate (without quoting it directly), made official on last January 5th, consisted of a "pseudo-church structure consisting of schismatics". He blamed the Ukrainian authorities and the Constantinople Patriarchate for intruding into the canonical territory of the Ukrainian Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, and the Kyiv government for discriminating the Russian believers, take their churches and encourage inter-religious hatred.
The statements on Ukraine repeated the accusation of persecution to the Orthodox of the Russian Church by the Ukrainian government that Kirill disclosed in a letter sent on December 14th, 2018 to several political and religious leaders of the world, such as Pope Francis, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, the head of the World Council of Churches Olav Fyske Tveil, the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Angela Merkel, Emmanuel Macron, among others.
The presence of Putin and Dodon (Russian president's ally) in celebration of his enthronement, the political matter and the letter sent to civic and religious leaders show the Kirill's political action in national and foreign issues. Kirill is muche more than "only" the religious leader of the Russian Orthodox Church. He's also the disseminator of ideas which are shared by the Russian state, with whom he works in consonance.
(Putin's speech. Crowded State Palace in the Kremlin.)
Before the Patriarch, Vladimir Putin made a speech of about 10 minutes. He congratulated Kirill for the date, praised his work and extoled the actions of the Russian Orthodox Church in various fields of society, both inside and outside the country, establishing relationships with other peoples and churches. So that Putin recalled the Ukraine issue, making incisive statements and harshly condemning what he regarded as a "parasitizing" of the country's religious life by the Kiyv government, whose project "is not related to faith, but a false one". He was tougher in comparing the Kiyv's action which, in April, through Parliament, called for the creation of an autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church, accepted on October 11th by Constntinople, to the Bolcheviks, who persecuted, controlled and murdered almost all of the Orthodox religious in the former USSR, mainly between 1918 and 1939.
"In essence, there is a gross interference in the church life. Its initiators seemed to learn from the godless of the last century, who expelled believers from churches, poisoned and persecuted the clergy."
The explanation was followed by audience's applause.
The president said that the Russian authorities will never accept the interference of the state in the Church's affairs, manly abroad, and that they "reserve the right to react and do everything to protect human rights, including freedom of religion".
The 1993 Constitution of Russia guarantees Church-State separation (Article 14) since the effective separation by Law on Religious Freedom and Religious Association signed on October 1st, 1990 by Mikhail Gorbachev and reaffirmed it in a new law of September 26th, 1997, where recognizes the special role in the country of the Russian Orthodox Church and gives special recognition to Islam, Judaism and Buddhism, the so-called "traditional religions".
The religious freedom, however, has been restricted in Russia, especially after introduction of a series of amendments to the anti-terrorism laws known as Yarovaya Law, passed on June 24th, 2016. Under the pretext of combating extremism, the law made registration, property ownership and missionary action of religious groups more difficult, especially the religions considered "non-traditional" and that refuse to register officially with the state. The groups most affected were Christian minorities and Eastern religions. One of the most visible consequences was the ban of The Administrative Center of the Jeovah's Witnesses in Russia on April 20th, 2017. All its facilities were owned by the state and the religious activities were banned. Baptist Christian were also persecuted, and until a few months ago there were around twenty of their members in jail. Despite being largely privileged for being a majority, to be considered one of the traditional religions and to enjoy agreements with public institutions such as universities, some religious of the Russian Orthodox Church have been complained of restrictions imposed on minority groups by the government.
Putin's accusation against Kyiv government also fit to Donbass region in a war waged by pro-Russian fighters with Moscow's support. There have been several allegations of violation of religious freedom, including the murdering of four Protestant religious, as pointed out in a document of the Belgium's IPHR organization in partnership with the Ukraine's CCL as early as April 2015. These persecutions are promoted by battalions such as The Most Glorious Legion of Don, made up by Cossacks self-proclaimed defenders of the Orthodox faith, and the Russian Orthodox Army, led by the main Russian fighter, Igor Strelkov. Some religious and priests of the Russian Orthodox Church, although not in the majority, have supported these fighters. Ukraine would be the only country in the world where there's an armed conflict of Christians against Christians.
The 1993 Constitution of Russia guarantees Church-State separation (Article 14) since the effective separation by Law on Religious Freedom and Religious Association signed on October 1st, 1990 by Mikhail Gorbachev and reaffirmed it in a new law of September 26th, 1997, where recognizes the special role in the country of the Russian Orthodox Church and gives special recognition to Islam, Judaism and Buddhism, the so-called "traditional religions".
The religious freedom, however, has been restricted in Russia, especially after introduction of a series of amendments to the anti-terrorism laws known as Yarovaya Law, passed on June 24th, 2016. Under the pretext of combating extremism, the law made registration, property ownership and missionary action of religious groups more difficult, especially the religions considered "non-traditional" and that refuse to register officially with the state. The groups most affected were Christian minorities and Eastern religions. One of the most visible consequences was the ban of The Administrative Center of the Jeovah's Witnesses in Russia on April 20th, 2017. All its facilities were owned by the state and the religious activities were banned. Baptist Christian were also persecuted, and until a few months ago there were around twenty of their members in jail. Despite being largely privileged for being a majority, to be considered one of the traditional religions and to enjoy agreements with public institutions such as universities, some religious of the Russian Orthodox Church have been complained of restrictions imposed on minority groups by the government.
Putin's accusation against Kyiv government also fit to Donbass region in a war waged by pro-Russian fighters with Moscow's support. There have been several allegations of violation of religious freedom, including the murdering of four Protestant religious, as pointed out in a document of the Belgium's IPHR organization in partnership with the Ukraine's CCL as early as April 2015. These persecutions are promoted by battalions such as The Most Glorious Legion of Don, made up by Cossacks self-proclaimed defenders of the Orthodox faith, and the Russian Orthodox Army, led by the main Russian fighter, Igor Strelkov. Some religious and priests of the Russian Orthodox Church, although not in the majority, have supported these fighters. Ukraine would be the only country in the world where there's an armed conflict of Christians against Christians.
(From left to right: Igor Dodon, Kirill and Putin.)
On December 22nd, five days after the Unification Council in Kyiv chose Epiphanius as leader of the new Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill said the Russian Church should analyze the possibility of a new concordat with the Russian state in order to deep cooperation between both; should rethink its action for the unity of Ortodoxy, broken on October 15th, and seek in Vatican an ally in this regard (given Francis' posture, the Catholic Church will do its utmost to not displease Moscow in the name of ecumenical dialogue); and should work to expand its influence abroad. These guidelines point directly to the need to reverse the territorial loss in Ukraine, the prestige of the Church in Orthodoxy and of Russia in the world stage.
According to Yuri Ruban, high official of the Kyiv's Presidential Administration, Kirill intends to go to Ukraine and to visit Pechersk Lavra (Cave Monastery), one of the major spiritual center of the Orthodox world and where, according to the letter of December 14th, the Ukrainian authorities would be trying to private its use by Russian Church's monks. The trip would aim, among other things, to support pro-Russian candidates for country's presidency, whose election will be on March 31st. For Yuri, the Kremlin is using the faith to politically influence the Ukrainian voters.
Even if Kirill goes to Ukraine without any political pretension, his single presence would demand a huge security scheme and a complicated negotiation between two countries whose relations have worsened to much since 2014. Its to be expected also the reaction of nationalist groups, including anti-Russia extremists. Needless to say that this would provoke more tension in the region. This would give Russia excuses to retaliate any Ukrainian action, such as the supposed invasion of the Russian territorial waters in the case of the Kerch Strait.
As much as a Patrarch's visit is religiously legitimate (and even if Kirill and Putin didn't take the same tune in their speeches as on the occasion of the 10-year celebration of the Patriarch's enthronement, or that Church-State separation in Russia constituted a strict secularism), this would be the occasion for Moscow to make excuses and act politically and militarily in Ukraine.
In addition to the strong political divergences that erupted with Euromaidan in the end of 2013, the seizure of the Crimea and the ensuing war in 2014, for the expert Taras Kuzio the formation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is another chapter (perhaps definitive) of the loss of Ukraine by Russia. This is the hardest blow on Putin's claim to restore the Russian Empire.
While the trip remains at the level of possibility, the Ukrainians expect a Russian reaction for the loss of Ukraine. For a while, Putin continues only in rethoric.
* Published in Portuguese on February 5th, 2019.
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