Hilarion Alfeyev (pictured with Kirill Gundyaev), head of the Russian Orthodox Church’s Department for External Church Relations, criticized the recent law passed by the Latvian parliament. According to the law, persons holding leadership positions in religious organizations in the country must be Latvian citizens.
Alfeyev called this decision «a very gross interference in what is the absolute prerogative of the church. He exclaimed, «By what right can the state tell the church who its leader should be? But when it happens in Latvia, everyone remains silent,» said the representative of the Russian Orthodox Church.
And to emphasize his point, he added: «Imagine what it would mean for the Russian Orthodox Church, which has millions of members, if it were said that only citizens of the Russian Federation could be its leader? Then what about our Ukrainian and Moldovan flocks?» Reading such statements, a modern Russian proverb comes to mind: «Impudence is the second happiness.»
And one really wants to ask the head of the Department for External Relations of the Russian Orthodox Church: who ordered the Russian security forces, at the beginning of Putin’s rise to power and the creation of the «Skrep», to eliminate any foreign presence among the competitors of the Russian Orthodox Church? At whose behest were not only foreign Islamic preachers, funds, publishers, and educational institutions expelled from Russia, but also Protestant and even Catholic ones? Did they all think of it themselves? Oh dear…
And why didn’t the Russian Orthodox Church feel the need to stand up for its colleagues? Alfeyev is outraged that the logic of the Latvian law would apply in Russia, and a foreigner could not become the head of the Russian Orthodox Church.
But as far as we know, although comrade Gundyaev was elected patriarch by the local council of the Russian Orthodox Church with the votes of Ukrainian and Belarusian citizens, he himself is still a citizen of the Russian Federation. But let’s ask the question differently: how would the media and the expert community, inspired by the Russian Orthodox Church, react if a foreigner became the head not of the Russian Orthodox, but of the Russian Muslims? For example, a citizen of Turkey or Qatar? Yes, and also someone who doesn’t know the state language of Russia, like many representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church in Latvia who don’t know Latvian? A rhetorical question, isn’t it?
Let us remind you once again — the vast majority of foreign preachers from the Islamic community have been expelled from Russia, unable to obtain its citizenship (and this did not help others either). Islamic communities of foreign origin and centers such as «Nurjular» and «Tablighi Jamaat» were simply banned. Meanwhile, no one prevents the Russian Orthodox Church in Latvia from appointing Orthodox and Russian citizens to responsible positions, of which there are hundreds of thousands (there are about 350,000 Russian-speaking citizens in Latvia). However, they did not even allow Islamic Jamaats of foreign origin to be naturalized in Russia — they simply banned them. So, gentlemen of the Russian Orthodox Church, appreciate European liberalism.