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Breaking News -- Kirill Elected New Russian Orthodox Patriarch
The bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church this
evening in Moscow elected Metropolitan Kirill of
Smolensk and Kaliningrad, 62, to succeed the late
Patriarch Alexi II as the head of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The new Patriarch's challenge: to deepen the
Church's influence inside Russia, and to widen its presence outside Russia
Kirill will "certainly" invite Pope Benedict XVI
to visit Russia, and increase collaboration with
the Roman Catholic Church worldwide, Orthodox sources say.
His election thus opens new perspectives for
closer relations between Orthodoxy and
Catholicism, the "two lungs," East and West, of a
Christianity divided since the Great Schism of 1054.
His election also opens a new era in the
post-Soviet period of the Russian nation, its
internal life and its relations to the West and
the entire world. A special report
By Robert Moynihan
[]
MOSCOW, JANUARY 27, 2009 -- On the very
first day of voting, the bishops of the Russian
Orthodox Church this evening elected a new
patriarch to succeed the late Patriarch Alexi II,
who died in December: Kirill, Metropolitan of
Smolensk and Kaliningrad, age 62, according to a reliable source in Moscow.
(Photo: The Russian Orthodox Church's new
Patriarch, Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and
Kaliningrad, speaking to members of the Council
of Bishops at a meeting which starts the process
of selecting a new leader following the death
last month of Patriarch Alexi II, in Moscow's
Christ the Savior Cathedral, Sunday, January 25,
2009. He will be enthroned this weekend -- AP Photo/Sergey Ponomarev)
The vote was more than 600 in favor of
Kirill out of some 700 votes, more than 80%, our
source said. (Photo: Preparation for voting
during the election of the new Patriarch.)
[]
This choice, nearly 20 years after the
collapse of Soviet communism, marks an epoch in
the life of the Russian Church, and of Russia herself.
Kirill, whom I have had the occasion to meet
and come to know, is a dynamic person, energetic,
decisive. He has deeply-held convictions about
his faith, about the role of that faith in the
future of his country, and about the role of that
faith in the future of Europe and the world. He
is persuaded that only a return to "real values"
can enable Russia and Europe to confront the
current economic and cultural crisis. He believes
Russia's greatness, eclipsed in recent years, can
only be restored by the renewal of her ancient Orthodox faith.
Therefore, Kirill will attempt a double
agenda: (1) to build on what Patriarch Alexi
accomplished during the 18 years of his
patriarchate, continuing to rebuild the Church's
ruined infrastructure (thousands of Orthodox
churches have been rebuilt around Russia since
1991); and (2) to launch a series of new
initiatives to strengthen the Church's voice and influence in Russian society.
Kirill can be expected, then, to continue
rebuilding Russian churches, reopening schools,
expanding seminaries, renewing monasteries, and
in general restoring the outward signs of Russian Orthodox religious life.
But Kirill, who was the key figure behind
the unprecedented promulgation of the Church's
social teaching in a document in the year 2000,
can also be expected to take bold new steps to go
beyond renewing the institutional structure of the Church.
Kirill wants to affect society.
The new Patriarch, who has for several
years had his own Sunday morning television show,
wants the voice of the Church, the voice of
Christian teaching and Christian values, to be
heard in contemporary Russia on the great
questions facing the country and the world -- in
economics, in law, in family life, in education,
in social reform projects, in culture.
Kirill, a powerful public speaker, has been
extremely active in recent years, traveling the
world from Indonesia to Brazil, from Rome to
Havana to Geneva, to preach and build friendships
in dozens of countries. (He did this in his role
as the "Foreign Minister" of the Russian Orthodox
Church, heading up the Church's External Relations Department.)
It is not clear whether this type of travel
will also mark his patriarchate, but it is
certain that it will be a patriarchate with a
global scope. It could not be otherwise,
considering his life experience in recent years.
One great question concerns his relations
with the Pope of Rome and with the Roman Catholic
Church in general. It seems certain that Kirill,
who has traveled several times to Rome and has
met with Pope Benendict XVI more than once, will
invite Benedict to visit Russia -- something Pope
John Paul II wished to do but was not able to due
to the unwillingness of Patriarch Alexi to receive him.
[]
(Photo: Pope Benedict XVI greets Russian Orthodox
Metropolitan Kirill before a meeting at the
Vatican Dec. 7. The pope and Metropolitan Kirill,
head of the Moscow Patriarchate's office for
external relations, held a rare meeting in a bid
to improve often-strained relations -- CNS
photo/L'Osservatore Romano via Reuters)
"Kirill has a keen sense of the important
role of religious institutions in public life,"
said Daniel Schmidt, an American philanthropist
who has met and spoken at length with Kirill. "He
recognizes the essential role of religious faith,
not just in his own country, but in human society
in general, in building social trust," Schmidt,
director of programs for the Bradley Foundation
of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, said. The foundation has
supported many Russian youth centers, orphanages,
clinics and schools over the past 10 years.
Kirill's election, then, may usher in a
time when the Russian Church will be more open to
collaboration and common efforts, in Russia and
worldwide, with the Catholic Church, and with others as well.
Kirill, who has already been serving for
eight weeks as "interim Patriarch" (he was chosen
by his fellow bishops to carry out the duties of
patriarch after the death of Alexi II on December
5), made his mind clear in a homily he delivered
on January 6 at a Christmas Eve Mass held at the
Cathedral of Christ the Savior (following the
Julian calendar, the Russian Orthodox Church
celebrates Christmas on January 7).
More than 3,000 attended the Mass,
including Russian President Dimitry Medvedev,
accompanied by his wife, Prime Minister Vladimir
Putin, and hundreds of other dignitaries, as well
as the Pope's nuncio, or ambassador, to Russia,
Italian Archbishop Antonio Mennini.
Kirill invited those present to be valiant
during the current economic crisis, and asked for
spiritual help for the nation's president.
The word "crisis" comes from the Greek
meaning "decision," Kirill said. He said that
today decisions have been affected by certain
attitudes, such as "greed, loss of control over
consumption, a bid to enrich oneself by all means
and have as much as possible." He said the crisis
began when people forgot true values, and that
further crises could be avoided if values
provided the foundation for the economy.
"Today we recall how the Son of God came
down to people so that each one of us could
rejoin Him. But to allow this to happen, there
must be a response on our part, response worthy
of divine love -- our own love, active and sacrificial," Kirill said.
The life of the deceased Patriarch Alexi II
was an example of such love, he said, praising
the late Patriarch's relentless efforts aimed at
preserving the unity of Church.
"The demise of the Holy Patriarch Alexi
ends an important period in the history of our
Church, which coincided with deep social
changes," Kirill said. "We are now living in an
entirely different society that bears no
resemblance to the times of imposed atheism."
At the same time, the Patriarchal Locum
Tenens acknowledged that Orthodox Christians in
Russia are now facing new problems, mostly of social and economic nature.
Many are losing their jobs and sustaining "material losses, Kirill said.
"The Church embraces with compassion all
who are finding it hard to carry on," he said.
"May God give strength and wisdom to all --
rulers, entrepreneurs and ordinary workers -- so
that our common and coordinated efforts, mutual
support and the search for correct decisions
could help us surmount the current difficulties,
preserve ourselves and our loved ones and
maintain peace and harmony in our society."
Kirill told believers that "only love creates real unity".
"Only if there is no room left for enmity,
envy or rivalry in our souls and our hearts are
open to love and unity will God's blessings
descend upon us, healing our ailments and filling us with strength," he said.
The Christmas address prepared by Patriarch
Alexi II before his death was also read at the
Christmas Mass. Alexi recalled in his message the
celebrations that took place last June 2008 to
mark 1020 years of Christianity in Russia (the
country's baptism occurred in 988), and he
invited the faithful to continue living according
to the will of God, and not their own.
“Let us remember," Alexy II wrote, "that only God gives true peace.”
Traditional Values
Kirill, and others who believe as he does,
is controversial in the West, especially because
has made strong statements condemning societal acceptance of homosexuality.
In an interview published in mid-2008 by
the German magazine Der Spiegel, Kirill said that
if society stops considering homosexuality a sin,
the next step will be general excuse of various sexual perversions.
Reminding the interviewer that the Bible
calls homosexuality a sin, Metropolitan Kirill
stressed that the Church does not condemn
homosexuals and is against "persecuting or insulting these people."
But, he continued, "why promote sin? A gay
parade is an intrusive display of depravity. The
Church is to say that sin is sin. Otherwise, the Church is not needed."
In March, 2007, Kirill denounced the idea
of conducting a gay pride parade in Moscow. He
said it "is directed against the majority of
Russian society. We believe that the law should
not interfere in citizens' private lives. You can
sin if you want to, but you will answer to God.
However, if you are trying to propagate your sin
by seducing and degrading people, society must oppose it."
In an address to the Third European
Ecumenical Assembly in Sibiu in September, 2007,
Kirill said that in order for Europe to survive
the tribulations that have befallen previous
civilizations, it must retain its Christian identity.
He said an increasing number of Europeans
Christians and non-Christians alike have come to
recognize "Christianity [as] a powerful source of
support for European civilization."
He was careful to explain that this does
not imply that "there is no room" in Europe "for
people of other religions and with other outlooks
on the world." Rather, it points to the
"recognition of the high role of the Christian
faith in the past, present and future of our continent."
Kirill seems poised to strive to lessen the
rift between the Russian Orthodox and Catholic Churches.
Kirill has said that "in the Vatican and
not only in the Vatican but all over the world,
Catholics understand that Orthodox (people) are
their allies. And Orthodox (people) are more and
more coming to understand that Catholics are
their allies in the face of hostile and non-religious secularism."
But some Russian Orthodox think he is going too
far, and this will provide a brake against
Kirill's ecumenical efforts. On 31 December
Pravaya.ru published an open letter taking Kirill
to task for ties with the Roman Catholic Church.
The letter asked him to renounce statements it
says he had made in the past. First among them,
states the letter: "We ask you to disavow the
assertion that the Orthodox and Roman Catholic
churches are divided parts of One Church, and
affirm that in the true sense the One Holy
Catholic and Apostolic Church is only the Orthodox Church."
The letter cites an interview Kirill gave
in 1991, in which he stated that no ecumenical
council, similar to those that established Church
doctrine in the early centuries of Christianity,
has been convened since the division of the
churches to formally condemn the resulting religions as heretical.
In a defence of Kirill published on 13
January in response to the open letter, Russian
Orthodox Bishop Hilarion of Vienna and Austria
cited interviews, sermons and documents in which
Kirill disavowed the "branch theory" of Christianity.
"The goal of branding someone with whom one
does not agree as a heretic is not, of course, to
find the truth, but to blacken one's opponent,"
Hilarion wrote. "When this is done on the
threshold of a local council that will be
electing the Patriarch, and in regards to one of
the possible candidates, then it is clear this is
not a search for truth but a sinful means of fighting an undesirable person."
The delegates named by each diocese to
attend the local council, and the process of
selecting them have also stirred heated debated.
It has been noted that bureaucrats and others
with close ties to power, are among the
delegates, including the governor of the Omsk
region, the wife of the governor of Primorsky
Krai, on Russia's Pacific coast, and a number of businessmen.
Metropolitan Kliment of Kaluga and Borovsk,
the Moscow Patriarchate's property manager, who
was seen as less enthusiastic on church unity
than Kirill, was the remaining candidate.
Metropolitan Filaret of Minsk had been seen as
one of the favorites, but there were concerns
about his health, and Filaret himself removed
himself from consideration prior to the vote,
asking those present to vote for Kirill.
"Under this holy man, the Russian Orthodox
Church became the only force preserving the
traditions and values of holy Russia," Kirill
said in Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral.
"Like a sick man, allowed to stand after a long
period in bed, our Church was weak at the
beginning of his service and unable to use its
spiritual potential fully. Today, it is no longer
weak, and it lives with the people," he told
participants in the December 9 service.
Among those in attendance were Russian
President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister
Vladimir Putin, as well as Orthodox patriarchs
and archbishops and leaders of other faiths and
denominations. Among the Catholics attending were
German Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the
Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity,
and French Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, retired
head of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.
Here is a brief biography:
Metropolitan Kirill (Russian: ?????????? ??????),
born as Vladimir Mikhailovich Gundyayev (????????
?????????? ???????), on November 20, 1946,
Leningrad, Soviet Union, is a Russian Orthodox
Church (ROC) bishop, the Metropolitan of Smolensk
and Kaliningrad since 1991, the Chairman of the
External Church Relations Department of the
Moscow Patriarchate since November 1989, and a
permanent member of the Holy Synod.
In 1970 Kirill completed a degree from the
Leningrad Theological Academy, where he was
retained as a professor of dogmatic theology and
aid to the Academy's Inspector.
After August 30, 1970, he was a personal
secretary to Nikodim (Rotov), Metroplitan of Leningrad.
On September 12, 1971, he became archimandrite
and was posted as a representative of the ROC to
the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Geneva.
On December 26, 1974, he was appointed Rector of
the Leningrad Academy and Seminary.
Since December 1975, he was a member of the WCC
Central Committee and Executive Committee.
In 1976, Kirill was consecrated Bishop of Vyborg.
In 1977, he became Archbishop. Since 1978, he has
been the manager of the "Patriarch's parishes in
Finland" (the name of the structures of the
Russian Orthodox Church in Finland). In 1984, he
became Archbishop of Smolensk andVyazma. The
title was changed to Archbishop of Smolensk and
Kaliningrad in 1989. In 1991, he became Metropolitan.
In 1974-1984 he was the Rector of the Leningrad Spiritual Academy and Seminary.
In 1971 he was appointed representative of the
Moscow Patriarchate at the World Council of
Churches and has been actively involved in
theecumenical activity of the Russian Orthodox
Church since then. In 1978, Kirill was appointed
Deputy Chairman, and in November 1989, Chairman
of the External Church Relations Department of
the Moscow Patriarchate and permanent member of
the Holy Synod. He is known as active and
efficient diplomat. The main success of foreign
relations of the Russian Orthodox Church during
Kirill's service ar the External Relations
Department has been the reunification of the ROC
with the "Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia".
On 6th December, 2008, the day after the death of
Patriarch Alexy II (1990-2008), the Holy Synod
elected him Locum tenens of the Patriarchal throne.
On 9th December, 2008, during the funeral service
for Patriarch Alexy II in the Christ the Saviour
Cathedral, which was broadcast live by Russia's
state TV channels, he was seen and reported to have fainted at one point.
On December 29, 2008, when talking to
journalists, he said he was "categorically
opposed to any reforms" of a liturgical or doctrinal nature in the Church.
Since 1994 Kirill has hosted a weekly Orthodox TV program on ORT/Channel One.
The conservative wing in the ROC criticized
Kirill of practising ecumenism throughout the
1990s. In 2008 breakaway Bishop Diomid of Anadyr
and Chukotka criticized him for associating
himself with the Catholic Church. However, in a
recent statement Metropolitan Kyrill stated that
there could be no doctrinal compromise with the
Roman Catholic Church, and that discussions with
them did not have the goal of seeking unification.
[]
On October 20, 2008, while on a tour of
Latin America, he had a meeting with First
Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Fidel
Castro; the latter commended Metroplitan Kirill
as his ally in combatting "American imperialism".
Kirill awarded Fidel Castro and his brother Raul
Castro on behalf of Patriarch Alexi II, in
recognition of their decision to build the first
Russian Orthodox Church in Havana, to serve the
Russian expatriates living there. (Photo: Former
Cuban leader Fidel Castro walks with Kirill in
Havana October 20, 2008. Kirrill blessed the
newly rebuilt Orthodox cathedral in Havana during
its dedication October 18 -- CNS photo/Reuters)
[]
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