Putin Bestows Order of St. Andrew on Patriarch Kirill, Notes Highest Regard to Him in Russia, Abroad

Moscow, November 22, Interfax - Russian President Vladimir Putin has noted the highest regard to Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia in the country and outside of it.

Putin bestowed on him Russia's highest state award, the Order of St. Andrew the Apostle the First-Called, on Saturday, on the patriarch's 75th birthday.

"Your Holiness, it is a great and tremendous honor for me to commend your merits and work for the good of our Motherland and to decorate you with Russia's top award - the Order of St Andrew the Apostle the First-Called, a particularly revered educator and missionary of the Christian faith," the president said during the ceremony at the Kremlin.

The Russian Orthodox Church has been through both good and hard times, "but currently its voice has acquired momentous significance again; it is being heeded and trusted," Putin said. To a great extent, it is the result of the patriarch's personal efforts, Putin said.

Patriarch Kirill's relentless pastoral labor has garnered him "the highest regard not only in Russia but also abroad, as well as respect among millions of believers in our vast country," he said.

Putin also noted Patriarch Kirill's tremendous contribution to promoting the traditional values of the peoples of Russia and preserving its historical and cultural heritage.

"Today, as we fight the coronavirus pandemic, your call to unite in the face of the threat inspires the Russian Orthodox clergy, volunteers and all those who carry out the merciful mission of helping the sick, those in need of support and a spiritual pillar," Putin said.

This is a good thing for Russia

No it's not. It's all fake BS. Kirill is "former" KGB and spent decades promoting liberation theology:

"The man who is now the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, secretly worked for the KGB under the code name “Mikhailov” and spent four decades promoting liberation theology, which we at the top of the Eastern European intelligence community nicknamed Christianized Marxism.

Liberation theology has been generally understood to be a marriage of Marxism and Christianity. What has not been understood is that it was not the product of Christians who pursued Communism, but of Communists who pursued Christians. I described the birth of liberation theology in my book Disinformation, co-authored with Professor Ronald Rychlak. Its genesis was part of a highly classified Party/State Disinformation Program, formally approved in 1960 by KGB chairman Aleksandr Shelepin and Politburo member Aleksei Kirichenko, then the second in the party hierarchy after Nikita Khrushchev.

In 1971, the KGB sent Kirill — who had just been elevated to the rank of archimandrite — to Geneva as emissary of the Russian Orthodox Church to the World Council of Churches. The WCC was, and still is, the largest international religious organization after the Vatican, representing some 550 million Christians of various denominations in 120 countries. Kirill/Mikhailov’s main task was to involve the WCC in spreading the new liberation theology throughout Latin America. In 1975, the KGB was able to infiltrate Kirill into the Central Committee of the WCC — a position he held until he was “elected” patriarch of Russia, in 2009. Not long after he joined the Central Committee, Kirill reported to the KGB: “Now the agenda of the WCC is also our agenda.”

https://www.nationalreview.com/2015/04/secret-roots-liberation-theology/

Only about 7% of the Russian Orthodox in Russia attend church once a month. Vast majority do not. The churches that ARE alive, Baptists, Pentecostals, etc., get cracked down upon by the State and categorized with Mormons, Scientologists and JWs.

Russia is not a Christian nation by any stretch of the imagination. It is still very much ruined by decades of reverse natural selection from the mass murdering of the Communists.

Putin uses religion in his country for jingoistic nationalist purposes and confusing the West. When he's not giving medals to KGB Marxists like Kirill, he's supporting communist groups, insurgents, gangsters and countries across the world.

This award is to symbolize the connection between the Russian Government and the Russian Orthodox Church more than just an award to the Patriarch. You may be correct Russia is not the most Christian country but it has a drop rooted legacy as one that even the Soviet Union did not extinguish. They still have their belief they are a state that is a lineal successor of Constantine and protector of Christianity after the fall of Constantinople and the western Roman Empire. That is why they used Tsar as it was a derivatation of Caesar.
The Patriarch maybe/is pushing liberation theology but is it now Marxist or not at all anymore? You could say too many religious leaders spout liberation theology across Christian (Jesuits, US black ministers, the Pope, Anglicans/archbishop of Canterbury , etc.) . In the case of this Patriarch, what is he doing now? I don’t have enough info to tell and I will preface I don’t watch Russian Church politics and outreach enough to know.
Today there are many want the old Russian empire to return and the church to part of that renewal. In the process the Russian Orthodox Church is tight (hand in hand in cases)with the Russian government. The government and Putin is showing the close relationship. I don’t know if they will make the Russian church the religion of the land but this is really close to saying so.
This marriage of church and state in post soviet Russia does keep getting more interesting.

You may be correct Russia is not the most Christian country but it has a drop rooted legacy as one that even the Soviet Union did not extinguish.

The Soviet Union extinguished it. The ROC is not a church. It is an entity under the complete control of the Russian intelligence services and serves propaganda purposes both domestically and internationally.

For all that we complain about that is wrong with our society, Russian society is intensely sick and degenerate. It is the only place I have ever seen bonafide jingoists celebrating at the death and maiming of Americans, the flooding of Muslims into western countries, while ranting about the Russian Orthodox Church and how Joseph Stalin should have victimized more people. It is the only country I've seen where drunkards with AK47s invade a country like Ukraine, calling them "Nazis," while posing with Swastikas and Soviet flags while standing over a decapitated body of some civilian they got ahold of.

We in the West only have a very small view of Russia via these little articles. The reality on the ground is not good.

Is Kirill, whose entire religious career up until just 10 years ago, consisted of spreading Marxism, still a communist? Well, look at what Kirill and Russia does: supporting China, Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, and international communist movements. By their fruit ye shall know them is the scriptural test for things.

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