For some it would be yet another proof of the uninterrupted dialogue of the Church of Rome with the patriarchate of Moscow, and of relations that are by no means cracked between the two Holinesses, which should have been reunited in June in Jerusalem – the postponement sine die of the second meeting, after the one in 2016 in a hall of the Havana airport, would in fact have risked generating “much confusion”, as Pope Francis said promptly in sending Kirill a short letter of good wishes on the occasion of Easter which Orthodox churches celebrated April 24 according to the calculation of the Julian calendar. A reading, this, which was already given two days ago, albeit with further and diversified considerations of merit, with the spread of the news of the papal letter.
Yet the fact that the text was first published by Moscow on Sunday, and Oltretevere with large passages of the same only the following day, should have led to greater caution in evaluating and a downsizing of the scope of these wishes. Greetings which, as per established practice, are addressed annually on the occasion of Easter to each patriarch, to whom they were expressed, once again, with the same words for all. In short, there is no novelty or uniqueness in the letter to Kirill, with the exception of the broader reformulation of the fourth paragraph concerning the Russian offensive in Ukraine, which reads thus: “May the Holy Spirit transform our hearts and make us true peacemakers, especially for war-torn Ukraine, so that the great Easter passage from death to new life in Christ becomes as soon as possible a reality for the Ukrainian people, who yearn for a new dawn that will put an end to the darkness of war ».
Unequivocal words those of Francis, which have slipped on to Kirill, intent rather – or whoever for him from his entourage – to surreptitiously present himself as the privileged interlocutor of the bishop of Rome and worthy of a credit that he has never fully had with his counterparts and which he almost lost entirely with the slavish support for the Russian Federation’s “special operation” in Ukraine. On the other hand, none of the other patriarchs dreamed of giving news and, least of all, having the Bergoglian writing published, moreover considered routine.
An operation, therefore, self-promotional and nothing more on the part of Kirill, who already on Monday made shredded paper of the appeal of Francis with the homily delivered in the Cathedral of the Dormition: a real laus belli founded on the usual thesis of “Holy Russia”, which the Moscow patriarch had once again made explicit, on February 27, in terms of a single land composed of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. This time an inconvenient turning point was Ivan III, who “after having done a lot to unite all the lands around Moscow, decided that Moscow should become the capital of the great state” and put an end to “the invasion of foreigners, the civil conflict, the confusion of thoughts, the loss of national identity “. Hence the parallelism with the present times, in which “we, as a people, are faced with many problems associated with the worsening of the situation around our country”. It is therefore necessary to ask the Lord not only “to preserve peace”. But also «to strengthen our homeland and unite all of Russia. Such a prayer should above all resound in these historic walls. We are in the temple, which is a national shrine and at the same time a memorial temple, created as a sign of the unification of all Russian lands ».
In a crescendo of tones, characterized by the use of all the warlike lexical arsenal and by the legitimation of military triumph, which is not only “physical” and is not “only the victory of the weapon with which the soldier faces the enemy. But it is always a victory of the spirit “, then touches on the trite topic of” new pseudo-values. But we must preserve our special vocation, if you like: to preserve the Orthodox faith, to preserve the unity of our people, not to succumb to any temptation and promise ”.
Then the most disconcerting passage: “Our heroic devoted ancestors, including those who built this cathedral, understood all this well. And, therefore, the cathedrals were built as fortresses, because they realized that, at some point, they would have to defend themselves behind their walls. This has happened several times in the history of our homeland. Suffice it to recall the heroic defense of Smolensk, when the enemy passed through the city walls and only the cathedral remained as the last stronghold and refuge for the defenders of the city. And they did not want to give up the cathedral: the temple was blown up and buried under the arches of its defenders, who remained undefeated. May all these wonderful heroic examples inspire us today to defend the Homeland, to defend our true independence from the powerful centers of power that currently exist on earth. May the Lord keep us in true freedom ». That Lord, whom he immediately invoked to “guard our army, our authorities and all those on whom today the defense of our homeland depends above all”, is again the protagonist in the conclusion of the sermon. However, not as God of peace or loving common Father, whose children in Ukraine suffer death, misery, destruction (for them Kirill does not reserve even a word). But like the Lord and Heavenly Father, to whom we turn to because “his mercy […] extends over our land, over our homeland, as it has spread throughout its millenary history, especially in its most dangerous and critical moments. May the Lord guard our land, our people, our Church, the authorities and the army for many good years! ».
It is therefore not surprising that the clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church are showing increasing impatience for a patriarch who has exchanged the Gospel message for warlike proclamations. And it is not just a question of metropolitans who no longer mention his name in the divine liturgies or open condemnations of the fratricidal war, such as the one advanced in early March by 233 priests and deacons. But of open ridicule and derision of Holiness of him Kirill I, to the point that in seminars the new verbal term was coined cyrillize (кириллить), to indicate a pious and at the same time completely irresponsible chatter, in which the religious and the political are closely intertwined.
According to Sergej Chapnin “this is exactly what we see in Patriarch Kirill’s sermons”. Of which the Muscovite theologian, journalist and writer has direct and hardly comparable knowledge, having been director of the Newspaper of the Moscow Patriarchate (Журнала Московской Патриархии) as well as secretary of the Commission of the Inter-conciliar Presence for Relations between Church, State and Society. Tasks that, like countless others, had been granted to Chapnin at the disposal of Kirill, an admirer of his skills and ability. Except, however, to put him at the door in 2015 with the intensification of critical positions on the current state of the Russian Orthodox Church by the brilliant and independent thinker.
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