Brussels has proposed that EU-member states sanction Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, as part of the sixth package of measures presented by the EU's executive arm in response to the war in Ukraine.
Adalberto Minardi, an expert in the History of the Russian Church and Orthodox Spirituality, explains why.
ADALBERTO MINARDI
Monk from Bose, San Gimignano (Italy)
Why sanctions? Because the Patriarch's actions since the beginning of the war are seen as an unconditionally supporting of Putin's war. The Patriarch does not use the term “war” but he speaks about the defense of the homeland, about the homeland in danger in front of an aggression of forces that dominate the world, he speaks about the values that must be defended. This is in line with Kirill's discourse in recent years but read at this time it is clearly of the Russian president's arguments.
In a recent interview published by Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Pope Francis said the Patriarch of Moscow must not become Putin's altar boy. In 2012, Kirill called Putin's electoral victory as a miracle of God. It's part of a church and state collusion in which Orthodoxy is part of the national identity.
ADALBERTO MINARDI
Monk from Bose, San Gimignano (Italy)
Surely an attack by the West on the person of the Patriarch will be felt as an outrage not only among the believers but also among those who are more distant from the church because it hits a symbols. A personal attack on the head of the church, who remains the legitimate patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, will not help the diversity or dialogue among the different opinons within the church.
Although Patriarch Kirill has always denied being wealthy, according to the Russian magazine Novaya Gazeta, his net worth is greater than four billion dollars.
RGA
TR: JM
