Free Republic

The leader of the Orthodox Church, Patriarch Bartholomew I, has granted adherents of the Orthodox faith in Ukraine autocephaly, or in other words, independence from Russia. Bartholomew did this on his own authority, against the advice of other bishops, thereby violating canon law and contradicting decisions on Ukraine he himself made just a few years ago. The reactions could hardly have been worse: Other patriarchs refuse to follow suit. Even members of the Greek-Orthodox Holy Synod have voiced their disapproval. Orthodox Church leaders in Poland or the Czech Republic also oppose the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople. The 2,000 monks (abbots...

Liberation theology, of which not much has been heard for two decades, is back in the news. But what is not being mentioned is its origins. It was not invented by Latin American Catholics. It was developed by the KGB. 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...

Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad has been elected the new head of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Council, which comprised clergymen, monks and laymen, announced on Tuesday the results of the voting for the post of Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia. Kirill has been temporarily in charge of the church since the death in December of Aleksy the Second. Kirill had previously been head of the external church relations department. He also hosted a TV programme popular among Russian believers and viewed on one of Russia’s main television channels. Kirill was an active supporter of the reunification between...

In what Rome could consider an early good omen following yesterday's death of Patriarch Alexei II, earlier today the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox church elected its point-man to the Vatican as the Moscow patriarchate's temporary administrator. Holder of the church's external-affairs portfolio, Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kalingrad will serve as locum tenens -- literally, "placeholder" -- for no more than six months, the point when the church's statutes dictate the election of a new patriarch must proceed. A former representative of the patriarchate to the World Council of Churches, the 62 year-old hierarch (right, with B16)...

MOSCOW, May 18 (Itar-Tass) - Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, met Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday to discuss human rights. During the meeting, “Metropolitan Kirill gave Benedict XVI a greetings message from Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia that had been accepted with gratitude,” the press service of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate reported. Metropolitan Kirill told the pontiff about the Declaration of Human Rights and Dignity. He shared his impressions about the conference, “Give a Soul to Europe....