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(VERY IMPORTANT) Here is what Metropolitan Vitaly of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR) said about the Communist credentials of the current ROC "Patriarch" Alexis II:

And now, when we hear reports on the world wide web of the Internet to the effect that the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia and the Moscow Patriarchate are two parts of one Church, and that it is none other than the Moscow Patriarchate that is the "Mother Church" of all Orthodox Russia - I consider it my duty to make a reply to this crude error, bordering on heresy.

If the Church is Christ Himself, then how is it possible to imagine Christ Our Lord with the traitor Metropolitan Sergius next to Him, or Christ next to Drozdov* (Alexis II)? If the Serbian holy man, Justin Popovitch, could say and write that the last two Serbian patriarchs were unlawfully elected to this highest level of the hierarchy by the communist party, then we can have no hesitation in saying that the last four patriarchs of the Moscow Patriarchate have been chosen by the communist state * * , which has suddenly declared itself to be a democracy. This senior administration of the Moscow Patriarchate is simply a government institution, devoid of Divine grace, and those who comprise it are no more than government officials in cassocks. There are "clever" people who will tell you that this entire letter is just the Metropolitan's own personal opinion. But here I will reply that I have been compelled to write this letter by endless protests from throughout our great Russian Diaspora. So this letter of mine is the voice of our Holy Russia outside the borders of Russia, and I have simply expressed it for all to hear. God grant that those who do not agree with this letter will not let their differences of opinion become transformed into a more profound disunity of soul; this would be the real tragedy.

Let us always thank the Lord that we are in the Holy Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, which throughout the 80 years of its existence has trodden the straight, royal path of God, without ever turning aside and losing its way.

+ Metropolitan Vitaly
Great Lent 1998

* Drozdov - the KGB code name for Alexis Riediger, formerly Metropolitan of Leningrad, who subsequently became the present patriarch.

** Canon 3 of the 7th Ecumenical Council at Nicaea
Every appointment of a bishop, or of a presbyter, or of a deacon made by civil rulers shall remain void in accordance with the Canon (Apostolic Canon)

30) which says "If any bishop comes into possession of a church by employing secular rulers, let him be deposed from office, and let him be excommunicated, together with all those who communicate with him."

Link:

http://www.monasterypress.com/contempory.html