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On 6 September 2002 the secretary of the Security Council of the Russian federation, V.B. Rushailo, visited the St. Nicholas cathedral church in Vladivostok. Here a meeting was held with Bishop Veniamin of Vladivostok and Primorie, in which the governor of the Primorie territory, S.M. Darkin, also participated.
The primary emphasis of the conversation was placed on the fact that it is necessary to increase the spiritual security of the Primorie territory as Russia's outpost in the Atlantic-Pacific region and to support traditional religions. Bishop Veniamin said that the Vladivostok diocese, on its part, was prepared to provide all possible cooperation in strengthening the Russian state system in the Far East.
V.B. Rushailo surveyed the cathedral church, that was built at the beginning of the twentieth century, and he approached the reliquary containing some of the relics of the holy, righteous warrior, Feodor Ushakov, that arrived in Vladivostok on 27 August and was solemnly transferred for the blessing of the Pacific fleet.
After describing briefly for the guest the history of the St. Nicholas church, Bishop Veniamin presented V.B. Rushailo an icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, the heavenly patron of the cathedral and all of the Primorie territory. (tr. by PDS, posted 11 September 2002)
RUSHAILO CONCERNED AT ACTIVITIES OF NON-TRADITIONAL RELIGIOUS CONFESSIONS
ITAR-TASS, 7 September 2002
Visiting Secretary of the Russian Security Council Vladimir Rushailo has raised the problem of the activities of religious confessions at a conference held in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk on Saturday. The conference was attended by the Sakhalin regional governor, heads of territorial administrations and deputies of the regional Duma.
Problems of the activities of religious confessions have been given particular attention, Rushailo said. "Certain things have a latent character, to which regional leaders should pay special attention," Rushailo told the conference.
"Sometimes. the activities of non-traditional religious confessions go beyond the limit of the existing legislation, which should be given an adequate response by law enforcement structures," Rushailo said. "The criminal situation in the Sakhalin region is not easy," Rushailo said. All problems should be resolved by local administrations on the spot, although Interior departments and other security structures might help if necessary, he added.
According to Rushailo, FSB director Nikolai Patrushev is expected to visit Sakhalin soon and "will, obviously, ask about the criminal situation in the region". (posted 11 September 2002)
Russia Religion News Current News Items
Under cover of a law passed in June, the Russian state will bring all
its might to bear in a war against extremism. Collateral damage may be
heavy. Political parties should largely escape unscathed, but the fate
of religious denominations is much less certain.
The "Law on Combating Extremist Activity" moved through parliament
with little debate. Less than a month passed between the bill's first and
second readings [the period during which amendments may be introduced].
Although, in the end, the Communist and some of the liberal Yabloko deputies
voted against the bill, Russia's political elite is unanimous on the need
for tighter state control over unconstitutional political, racist or religious
behavior.
As enacted, most of the law tracks the draft that came over from the
Kremlin fairly closely. It provides an extensive list of the features of
extremism:
--overthrow of the constitutional order
--the planning and execution of illegal activities that may be accompanied
by forcible seizure or retention of power
--violation of the territorial integrity of the state
--terrorist activity
--organization of illegal armed units
--undermining the security of the Russian Federation
--incitement to national, racial or religious hatred
--hooliganism and vandalism with a political, racial, ethnic or religious
motivation
--interference with the "lawful activity" of the authorities at any
level.
Illegal activities listed in the bill also include violating fundamental
constitutional rights of the citizen, publicly displaying Nazi symbols
and funding extremist acts and organizations. None of the items on this
list is defined. Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov said the law would allow
the state to condemn any protest as extremist.
All organs of state authority and local government are authorized to
enforce the law "within the limits of their competence." Enforcement functions
explicitly include the "disclosure, prevention and suppression of extremist
activity." Enforcement authorities may on their own issue warnings and
even suspend the activities of organizations suspected of extremism. An
organization whose activity has been suspended may appeal to the courts.
Parliament actually softened the initial draft of this draconian law.
The Kremlin's original bill would have made internet service providers
and site administrators responsible for blocking access to "extremist"
material. The Duma struck that provision but may return to regulation of
Internet content in separate legislation. And before the second reading,
the Duma deleted the term "political party" from the list of types of organizations
covered by the main provisions of the bill ("an extremist organization
is a political party, social [religious] association or other organization").
Religious associations may face increased pressure once the new law
is adopted. The Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Pentecostalists, the Church
of the Last Testament (a Russian sect) and many, many others have already
experienced harsh and discriminatory treatment, in Moscow and in the provinces.
For example, the Moscow Justice Directorate refused to reregister the local
branch of the Salvation Army. There were no complaints against the Salvation
Army in Moscow or in any region in which the organization operated. Even
so, the Moscow Justice Directorate ruled that because the organization
uses the word "army" in its name, gives its members "military" ranks and
"military" uniforms, it must be concealing its true aims. Only after an
appeal to the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation was the Moscow
branch of the Salvation Army permitted to confirm its legal status.
The law will, however, aggravate the position of nonconformist religious
organizations. Article two gives legal reinforcement to the government's
collaboration with "religious entities ... as a counterweight to extremist
activity." As a practical matter, "religious entities" means the biggest
religious corporation in Russia--the Russian Orthodox Church (the Moscow
Patriarchate). The Orthodox Church is widely considered uniquely "our own,"
a "genuinely" Russian organization, independent of foreigners even financially.
Officials of the church do their utmost to emphasize the patriotic services
the church rendered to the state in ancient times and under the Tsars.
The church-state alliance means in practice that the Orthodox Church
establishes the line that secular authorities take in their evaluation
of this or that denomination. According to Tatyana Tomayeva of the journal
"Religion and Law," information on religious organizations drawn from the
Moscow Patriarchate's Missionary Department handbook is disseminated across
the whole of the Russian-language Internet, migrating from one publication
to another. Rights activists have revealed that the church handbook is
the source of blacklists found in a reference book for the staff of the
Prosecutor's Office called "Activities of Religious Associations;" in a
Ministry of Education letter to schools and technical colleges on the activities
of nontraditional organizations; and in an instruction from the Nizhny
Novgorod mayor's office listing religious organizations with which the
city government should not cooperate.
The law also serves to implement the earlier "Law on freedom of conscience
and religious associations." That, in an amendment that the Orthodox Patriarchate
and the Muslim Muftiate both opposed, provides that "a religious entity
not having the status of a religious organization" can be banned and its
activities prohibited. These sanctions can now be carried out under the
provisions of the anti-extremism legislation.
The situation is most difficult for registered denominations that,
while not acting illegally, are involved in energetic missionary activity
and gaining members rapidly. Foremost amongst these are the Jehovah's Witnesses
and the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints (Mormons). Russian
officials explain complaints against these organizations with reference
to an alleged centuries-old "ethno-confessional balance" that the emergence
of new religious groups is liable to destroy. This balance, they say, has
allowed Russia throughout its history to avoid armed religious conflict.
That is the justification for the prosecution of the Jehovah's Witnesses,
now in its sixth year. The Moscow prosecutor's office has charged the Jehovah's
Witnesses, among other crimes, with inflaming religious hatred. A Moscow
court of first instance acquitted the organization, but the Moscow City
Court refused to confirm the decision and referred the case back to the
court of first instance. A prosecution victory would ban the organization,
which now has over 300,000 adherents, and force the closure of more than
400 previously registered local Jehovah's Witness organizations throughout
Russia.
The president's new legislative initiatives may also be used to force
a merger between Russia's two major Islamic religious alliances: the Moscow-based
Council of Muftis of Russia, headed by Ravil Gainutdin, and the Central
Religious Board of Muslims of Russia and the European CIS countries, led
by Talgat Tadjuddin and based in Ufa. Russia's current top-level authorities
clearly prefer the Mufti in Ufa. The two Muslim alliances and their leaders
have spent years publicly accusing each other of Wahhabism--of deviation
from the traditional or "folkloric" Islam of the Volga region. (Wahhabism
is one of many tendencies in Islam. The term in present-day Russia is a
pejorative synonymous with Islamic extremism.) The anti-extremism law could
create the conditions for a forced reconciliation, and ultimately for the
creation of a single hierarchical Muslim organization, like the "Muslim
Patriarchate" that existed in Tsarist and Soviet Russia. That would greatly
facilitate state control at the expense of religious freedom--the likeliest
outcome of Russia's war on extremism.
Mikhail Zherebyatev is a specialist with the International Institute
for Humanitarian and Political Research in Moscow.
Russia
Religion News Current News Items
On a gentle bend in the Pskova River, near the center of this city steeped in religious history, the skeletal brick walls of a new cathedral rise unfinished, shrouded in wooden scaffolding and mired in the deepening tensions between the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches.
Pskov's small group of Roman Catholics began building the church two years ago, but the regional government unexpectedly halted construction in April, citing discrepancies in its blueprints and other documents.
Although officials have described the problem as purely a technical one, their decision came a month after Pskov's Orthodox leader, Archbishop Yevsevy, wrote to local leaders and President Vladimir V. Putin protesting the Catholic Church's "aggression" and "expansionist goals" in Russia.
"Taking advantage of the fruits of our current democracy, the enemies of our state are preparing a new expansion of Catholicism, which on the territory of Russia always resulted in war," the archbishop wrote.
Work at the church, which stopped five months ago, still has not resumed.
The conflict in Pskov--a city, near the border with Estonia, that is one of Russia's oldest--mirrors a worsening rift between the Orthodox and Catholic faiths, even as it raises questions about the limits on religious freedoms in Mr. Putin's Russia.
Russia's post-Soviet Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, and Mr. Putin has spoken in strikingly personal terms about the role religious beliefs play in Russian society.
"I've become increasingly convinced that now that we have no work collectives or party organizations, such as those of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, or educators at places of work, nothing but religion can make human values known to people," Mr. Putin said in an address to the World Tatar Congress in Kazan in late August.
He also said government officials should "do our best to prevent the building of barriers between them and their citizens."
But adherents of minority faiths in Russia--Catholics, Protestants, Muslims--say building barriers is exactly what government officials have done, increasingly at the behest of the Orthodox Church.
For Russia's Catholics, perhaps 600,000 in all, the trend has only worsened since a Vatican decision in February to transform its four apostolic administrative divisions in Russia into traditional dioceses.
The decision infuriated the Orthodox Church, which said it amounted to an infringement on its historical and spiritual territory. That began a spiral of mutual recriminations that has swept up smaller communities like the one in Pskov and dashed hopes of reconciliation between the two faiths, a goal of Pope John Paul II.
In April, the airport police in Moscow stripped the visa from one of Russia's four bishops, the Rev. Jerzy Mazur, a native of Poland. Since then, the Russian authorities revoked residency visas of an Italian priest, the Rev. Stefano Caprio, and just last month, a priest from Slovakia, the Rev. Stanislav Krajniak.
[On Monday, a fourth priest, the Rev. Jaroslaw Wiszniewski, a native of Poland, was detained at the airport in Khaborovsk, in Russia's Far East, as he returned from a trip to Japan. The Interfax news agency reported that he would be expelled.]
Catholic leaders say the visa decisions have deprived parishes of their spiritual leaders. There are only about 300 Catholic priests in Russia today, many of them foreigners susceptible to the vagaries of Russia's visa practices.
In May, the pope wrote to Mr. Putin about Bishop Mazur's position in particular. Mr. Putin responded last month. Officials from both sides have not disclosed the contents, but a spokesman for the Catholic Church in Moscow, Viktor Khrul, said Mr. Putin's letter had not directly addressed the effective expulsion of Bishop Mazur or other priests.
"The situation is not very pleasant, because the authorities have found our Achilles' heel," Mr. Khrul said. "They can deprive us of our clergy, because most of them are foreigners. And they can deny them visas without giving any reason."
In Pskov, as in many other Russian cities, the tensions between the churches have rarely been manifested in violence, as has been the case in other republics of the former Soviet Union. Most often, bureaucracy dogs the Catholics.
In some regions, Catholic congregations have not been allowed to register officially as religious organizations, as required by a 1997 law. Two of the four new dioceses, in Irkutsk and Saratov, have also been denied official recognition so far.
In Pskov's case, the ostensible genesis of the conflict was the height of the new church, but the wrangling has come to involve the church's place and mission in a historic center of Russian Orthodoxy.
While Orthodox leaders often accuse the Roman Catholic Church of being a newcomer to Russia, its presence in Pskov dates to 1803. Like all faiths, the Catholic Church was severely repressed during the Soviet era, ceasing altogether in Pskov in 1933. Its old church, built in 1843, was seized, and is now a vocational school. Pskov officials have repeatedly refused to return it to the Catholics.
The Rev. Vladimir Timoshenko, one of Pskov's two Catholic priests, showed 19th-century photographs of the old church as if to validate the church's historical claims.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the church re-established its presence in Pskov and began administering to the few hundred Catholic faithful who remained or rediscovered their spirituality.
Since 1994, Mass has been celebrated daily inside a chapel fashioned out of a converted garage in a pink stucco house. The chapel has two rows of plank pews with room for no more than two dozen worshipers. On Sundays, Father Timoshenko opens the garage doors, and the congregation spills onto the driveway.
Hence the need for the new church.
Construction on the church and an adjoining chancellery began in 2000 and continued until February. After Orthodox officials began complaining, inspectors found fault in the design, including the height of the church's towers, which had been planned to reach nearly 115 feet. The church has since lowered the height to 91 feet, but is still awaiting approval to proceed.
Since the building stopped, Orthodox officials have complained about the church, and twice groups of Orthodox believers have staged protests. "I want this church to serve all Christians," Father Vladimir said. "In the past, our churches were united. I want them to be united again, but this path is full of tortures."
The Rev. Ioann Mukhanov, the Orthodox priest at Holy Trinity Cathedral here and the secretary of the diocese council, denied that there were tensions with the Catholics but acknowledged that church officials had registered protests with the local authorities to halt construction.
He then listed a series of grievances against the new church --from its size to its name, which is also to be Holy Trinity--and against the Catholic presence in Russia generally. Echoing complaints from Orthodox officials across Russia, he accused the Catholic Church of proselytizing, seeking converts among orphans, among others.
"It's obvious," he said, "that they are planning to interfere with children of our Orthodox families."
Not all among the Orthodox clerics are so adamant. The Rev. Andrei Davydov, the priest at the Cathedral of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist and a renowned iconographer, has offered to paint the altar of the new Catholic Church.
"All these frictions are mixed with politics," Father Andrei said as he interrupted work on a new fresco in his church, built in the 12th century. "On both sides, it's not as simple as it seems. It's very old, and it cannot be settled overnight." (Copyright, New York Times, posted 11 September 2002)
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Becoming the fifth member of the Roman Catholic clergy to have been banned entry to Russia in the past few months, a priest was stopped re-entering the country on Tuesday, having been told that his parish had been abolished, a Russian newspaper said. Edward Mackiewicz, head of the Last Supper parish in Rostov-on- Don, Russia, told the Roman Catholic newspaper Svet Yevangeliya that he had been trying to enter Belarus from Poland by car. After he was kept for several hours on the Polish-Belarussian border, his visa, which had been valid until December 2002, was annulled and he was told that he was banned from going back to Russia, a Svet Yevangeliya source told Interfax. A border guard officer who refused to name himself told Mackiewicz that "his parish had been abolished and his church had been closed down, and so there was no longer any need for a parish priest in Rostov," the source said. Mackiewicz drove back to Warsaw. Catholic priest Jaroslaw Wisniewski was stopped at Khabarovsk airport on Monday. Priest Stanislaw Krajniak had his visa annulled in August and priest Stefano Caprio and Bishop Jerzy Mazur in April
RUSSIA MOVES ON CATHOLIC PRIESTS
Politics said to be behind expulsion of church leaders
by Judy Augsburger, NBC News
Moscow Times, 10 September 2002
Russian President Vladimir Putin has long held the middle ground in the conflict between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church, but with the expulsion of two more Catholic priests from Russia on Tuesday Catholics and Russia watchers fear Putin is weighing in on the side of the Orthodox Church. What was earlier a matter of tense inter-church relations has become a question of Russia's commitment to its constitutional guarantee of freedom of movement and religious expression.
Both priests expelled Tuesday are Polish nationals who had worked in Russia for more than 10 years. Jaroslaw Wisniewski, who served in Russia's Far East, was detained at the airport on Monday when he arrived in the town of Khabarovsk. He was put on a plane to Japan on Tuesday. The same afternoon, Edvard Mackiewicz, was stopped at the border when returning from Poland and was turned back after having his visa invalidated.
Russia now has expelled a total of five Catholic priests.
"It's very sad because we could be left soon with no priests," said Viktor Khrull, press secretary of Russia's leading Catholic, Archbishop Taduesz Kondrusiewicz, who is currently out of the country. "All of our priests are foreign for the moment, since there are no Catholic seminaries in Russia yet. If someone is trying to impinge on the rights of Catholics, then he has chosen the best tactic, because we can't do anything about it. Everything is done legitimately because any government can refuse to grant a visa or not extend a visa to a foreigner, without an explanation."
"We can only guess that the Catholic Church here in Russia has bad relations not only with the Orthodox Church but also with the government." said Igor Vyzhanov Moscow Patriarchy spokesman
CATHOLICS FALL FOUL?
The Russian Orthodox Church has denied that it played any role in any of the expulsions. "We can only guess that the Catholic Church here in Russia has bad relations not only with the Orthodox Church but also with the government," said Igor Vyzhanov of the Moscow Patriarchate's department of external church relations. "But we played no role. They must be just as clumsy and rude with the authorities as they are with us."
The expulsions, including a Catholic bishop who had worked for more than 10 years in Russia, began soon after the Vatican announced in February that it had turned its temporary church structures in Russia into permanent dioceses. The Russian Orthodox Church's highest authority, the Moscow Patriarchate, called this move a barely concealed effort at "expansion" and "soul poaching" on what it considers its own historically Orthodox territory. Russian church officials were deeply offended that the Vatican hadn't consulted with them beforehand.
Russian Orthodox priests have led demonstrations against what they see as Roman Catholicism's rising profile in the country.
"This exposed the missionary purposes of the Catholic Church," said the director of the Moscow Patriarchate's communication service, Viktor Malukhin.
While the Moscow Patriarchate maintained it had no connection to the visa denials, it began a campaign in the media detailing specific incidences of Catholic proselytism. The Catholics protested, saying that the Patriarchate's definition of proselytism includes their very presence on Russian soil.
"All of our activity provides the possibility to accuse us of proselytism - that our liturgy is in Russian, or that we engage in humanitarian aid, or put out publications, or that we use organ music in our preaching, just the fact that we are here is enough to show that we are proselytizing," said Moscow-based General Vicar Andrei Stetskevic.
LOCAL OFFICIALS TAKE SIDES
While both churches appear to have legitimate complaints and concerns, the fact that Russian authorities from the local level on up are more often taking the side the Orthodox Church in disputes has Catholics worried that their rights will not be protected by Russia's weak legal system.
The Catholic Church in Russia is particularly vulnerable because 85 percent of its almost 300 priests are foreigners who must obtain visas to live and work in the country. Putin's short reply in late July to Pope John Paul II's request for an explanation of the visa denials of the first two Catholic priests, Bishop Jerzy Mazur and Father Stephano Caprio, troubled many in the Catholic community. The Vatican called Putin's explanation "unsatisfactory."
According to Khrull, Archbishop Kondrusiewicz's press secretary, Putin's letter contained "virtually no explanation." More worrisome still, Khrull said, was a phrase he could not quote directly due to the confidential nature of the letter, but that "went like this: the Catholic structures in Russia may develop only on the condition that these structures do not infringe on the interests of the Russian Orthodox Church. Putin made it clear that the Russian Orthodox Church will decide itself when and how its interests are being infringed upon, and the president will be on the side of the Russian Orthodox Church."
GROWING RELIGIOUS REPRESSION?
Russia's refusal to reinstate at least Bishop Mazur also worries observers concerned about what they see as Russia's growing religious repression. According to Larry Uzzell of the Keston Institute, an organization that tracks religious repression in the Former Soviet Union, "Our understanding is that Putin is siding with the Patriarch on this issue, more than one would have guessed a year ago."
Uzzell sees this as a result of the new cooperation between the United States and Russia in the wake of Sept. 11 and the new global alliance on terrorism. Washington has been low-key on the issue, according to Uzzell, and "Putin has decided that he can get away with it. That he's not going to come under strong pressure from the West to respect the rights of religious minorities in his own country. In the absence of that pressure the weight of political forces within Russia is on the side of repression."
Anti-Catholic sentiment runs in Russia society, born of the conflicts over a thousand years of history since the two churches split into East and West. "Catholic activity on Russian territory has always become more energetic whenever Russia was going through difficult times in her historical development," the Moscow Patriarchy's Malukhin explained, listing the times in Russian history when the Poles or other Catholic countries used a politically weak moment in Russia to attack or invade, and describing in detail how the Vatican made overtures to the Bolsheviks after they had destroyed the Orthodox Church. "These are in the conscious and subconscious of the Russian people and they cannot help but poison the relations between the Catholics and Orthodox."
FAITHS CONSIDERED CLOSE
Uzzell points out the paradox of the two churches. "It really is striking that you can prove with almost mathematical precision that the Catholic faith is closer to the Orthodox faith in terms of its doctrinal content than Protestant Christianity is," he said. "But in spite of that there is much more deeply rooted folk prejudice against Catholicism than there is against Protestantism in Russia."
He said that today in Russia "Catholicism is seen in an overly simple-minded way as the spiritual expression of the West. In a way it's the spiritual counterpart of McDonalds. And that's true of pro-Western Russians and well as xenophobic Russians. Russian who are friendly to Catholicism tend to be friendly to it precisely because they like democracy, they like individualism, they like capitalism."
This anti-Catholic sentiment within the Orthodox Church and shared by some nationalistic local authorities has played a major role in the expulsions of the priests, according to Geraldine Fagan, Moscow correspondent of the Keston Institute. The area where the latest priest served includes the southern part of Sakhalin Island, one of the disputed territories Russia seized from Japan at the end of World War II. The parish there had used the Japanese name of the Island, Karafuto, to identify the region. After the Russian Foreign Ministry complained, the Catholics dropped the Japanese name. "You've got this local argument surrounding the name Karafuto, which was raised when they sent out Bishop Mazur. There do seem to be local conflicts involved with the priests who have been sent out so far," Fagan said.
Members of the Catholic community point out that localized or not, by choosing not to reverse the expulsions, the Russian government has declared its policy. "If we thought earlier that it might be some local circumstances, or local animosity against a few individuals, now we can only think that it is a conscious government policy, Viktor Khrull said. "And the question is now, who will be next?"
The Catholics have more and more reason to worry, said Uzzell. "The truth is that there is less religious freedom in Russia, as there is less freedom of the press and other kinds of freedom in Russia today than there was five years ago. The 1993 constitution has excellent provisions on freedom of religion. Putin should simply enforce those provisions."
RUSSIA EXPELS PRIEST, VATICAN SLAMS 'PERSECUTION'
Reuters, 10 September 2002
Border guards in Russia's far east said on Tuesday they had been ordered to expel a Catholic priest, prompting Vatican protests that Moscow is cracking down on the church in Russia.
The expulsion, the third in six months, deals a fresh blow to tense relations between the Vatican and the Orthodox Church, which accuses Catholics of trying to convert its members.
"Jaroslaw Wiszniewski was expelled as he has been put on a list of people not allowed to enter Russia," a spokesman for the border guards said in the region's largest city, Khabarovsk.
Wiszniewski, a Polish national, was detained on Monday when he landed at Khabarovsk airport on a flight from Japan. He was put on a flight back to Niigata, Japan on Tuesday.
He is the third foreign Roman Catholic priest, including a bishop, to be blacklisted and stripped of his visa without explanation. Russian authorities also refused to renew the visa of a fourth priest, also without explanation.
"This is a fact that is so grave that some people are already speaking of persecution," Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said. "It is even more grave because the Holy See has not received any official explanation about the reasons which are behind this expulsion."
He said the Vatican was tackling the problem through diplomatic channels.
The Russian Orthodox Church on its official Web site accused Wiszniewski of "open proselytism" after two of his parishioners distributed free Catholic literature.
Minority denominations in Russia have long complained of summary expulsions and harassment, but these were generally focused on marginal groups.
Crackdowns on the Catholic Church have increased since the Vatican announced plans earlier this year to create four full-blown dioceses in Russia.
"It is unclear why the Foreign Ministry has picked on these priests, targeting some and not others," said Felix Corley, editor of the British-based Keston News Service, which monitors religious freedom in post-Communist countries.
"It is unclear where the instructions come from, but even if (Russian President Vladimir) Putin has not ordered these expulsions, he has deliberately not overturned the decisions." Russian Catholics are estimated to number about 600,000 in a population of some 147 million. Patriarch Alexiy II, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, has blocked a visit by 82-year-old Pope John Paul, though Putin says he favors it. (Copyright, Reuters, posted 11 September 2002)
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He claims inspiration from God, but foes say the defrocked Orthodox priest is an apostle of violence.
Dressed in flowing purple robes and wearing a silver cross studded with red stones, Basil Mkalavishvili says he is merely defending the Georgian Orthodox faith of his ancestors from "Satanists."
"We are not beating anybody," he says. "There were a few times when we had to fight back."
Human rights groups here say Mkalavishvili's followers have staged scores of attacks during the past three years against Jehovah's Witnesses and members of the Assembly of God, Baptists and other non-Orthodox worshippers. Mobs have beaten worshippers, ransacked meeting halls and burned religious literature. At least 30 people have been injured in these rampages, some seriously.
Some of the assaults, witnesses say, have been committed as police stood by and Georgian television news crews taped the violence, without intervening. Mkalavishvili - known here as Father Basili - has not been convicted of any charges connected with the attacks.
He straightforwardly describes his goals. "My aim is to stop these sects from going around and knocking on people's doors and forcing them to change the Orthodox doctrines of the Georgians, which have been here for centuries," he says.
He says he respects Georgia's constitutional guarantee of religious freedom. "We don't prohibit freedom of religion," he says. "But they should not make any propaganda. They should keep to themselves."
After years of repression and subversion by Communist authorities, the dominant Orthodox churches in former Soviet states find themselves competing for believers with other faiths, from Roman Catholics to Hare Krishnas. But those emerging religions have met with the greatest antagonism in Georgia, where more than 80 percent of the population identifies itself as Orthodox.
Members of the Orthodox hierarchy have joined the criticism of other faiths. In June, Bishop Levan Pirtskhalaishvili, secretary to Patriarch Ilya II, wrote to the owner of a Tbilisi stadium warning him not to rent it to Witnesses for a meeting. The plan for the gathering, Pirtskhalaishvili warned, "arouses the just indignation of a very large portion of society." The event was canceled.
The Georgian press has widely publicized accusations by Mkalavishvili against Witnesses, whom he accuses of desecrating Orthodox churches, of being members of a suicide cult and encouraging followers to try to walk on water.
Perhaps because of these tales, many Georgians applaud Mkalavishvili's crusade. "Sects bring chaos in this country," says Zvead Dunduzashvili, 32, who sells soap and pens in a market in the city of Gori. "And all the sects pursue their own purposes and act for their personal profit."
The victims of the violence say they won't be intimidated. "It's a campaign of terror, to frighten people, so they will be afraid to engage in their ministries, to say they are Jehovah's Witnesses," says David Tolliver, an American Witness who works in Georgia.
He says he counsels Georgian Witnesses to cling to the faith's tradition of pacifism and not respond with violence. "We try very hard not to fight them," he says. "We understand that's not going to help. That's what they want. We try hard to follow what Jesus says."
The most recent violence occurred Aug. 15 in the eastern Georgian village of Otarsheni. Buses arrived in front of the Jehovah's Witnesses meeting hall around 8:30 p.m., an eyewitness said, and about 50 men piled out, some wielding truncheons.
"They thought there was a meeting there," says Shalva Mamporia, 39, a Jehovah's Witness who lived in the hall and worked as caretaker there. But the worshippers were warned there might be violence, and the meeting was canceled.
Undeterred, the mob stormed the building, smashing windows and furniture. Stacks of literature and benches were dragged into the street and set on fire. Mamporia ran. Two men chased him down, hit his head with their night sticks and kicked him in the ribs.
Several neighbors shouted encouragement to the mob. When a Witness who lives nearby appeared, his neighbors pointed him out to the rioters. He, too, was beaten.
Mkalavishvili wasn't there. But Mamporia says he recognized at least two of the attackers as "Basilists," the nickname for Mkalavishvili's followers. Police have launched an investigation, but no arrests have been made.
Human Rights Watch said in a report last year that Mkalavishvili led the "first major mob assault" on the Witnesses in Tbilisi in October 1999. Sixteen people were injured, several seriously.
Two of the victims were convicted of hooliganism.
Jehovah's Witnesses say they have documented 126 attacks on their members, most of them attributed to the Basilists. People have been beaten in meeting halls, at roadblocks thrown up to prevent gatherings and even in courtrooms by men wielding large wooden and metal crosses. The government has repeatedly promised to crack down on the violence, but little has been done, Witnesses say.
One case demonstrates their frustration. About 150 Basilists broke into a warehouse Feb. 3 and dragged out boxes of Jehovah's Witnesses literature, as well as thousands of Baptist editions of the New Testament in Georgian, Armenian and other Caucasian languages. They tossed the publications in a pile, sprayed the pile with gasoline and set it on fire.
"Yes, it happened," Mkalavishvili says. He says the Baptist Bibles were burned by accident. He says he was tipped off about the shipment of Jehovah's Witnesses literature by a Georgian customs official.
Police have restricted Mkalavishvili's movements to Tbilisi, but that has not prevented him from guiding his followers. They are preparing to disrupt two Jehovah's Witnesses gatherings outside Tbilisi this year. "I cannot leave," he said. "But many people, maybe 1,500, will go to both places."
Levan Ramishvili, director of the Liberty Institute, an American-financed civil rights organization, charges that the government has encouraged religious violence, to distract Georgians angry about corruption and the faltering economy.
"Father Basili commits all these crimes in the name of the Orthodox religion," Ramishvili says. "But this impunity makes us believe that it's not the church but our government that is encouraging him." Mkalavishvili acknowledges that help has come from authorities. "Thank God that among our security services and policemen, there are people who are willing to help me," Mkalavishvili told the BBC last year. "They realize how dangerous it is to have these sects in Georgia." (Copyright 2002, The Baltimore Sun, posted 7 September 2002)
Russia Religion News Current News Items
A wave of sectarianism has rushed over Russia. And the number of totalitarian religious societies has constantly increased. The figures are astonishing. Just imagine, we have no fewer than 4,000 of just the largest, best known in the world sects that are a danger to humanity. That means that ever more new victims are falling into their nets, paying their masters with their property, health, and often their lives.
Arkhangelsk province is no exception. "Evangelicals of the Seventh-day," "New Generation," "Jehovah's Witnesses," "Pentecostals," "The Family." That's just a partial list of the sects that have put down roots in the north. But, of course, they are not all totalitarian and there are some in which the people sincerely believe in God and want to improve the world. But we also know quite well the "innocent aunties" who distribute on the streets and at apartments beautifully published books and booklets with religious ideas. These very ideas, incidentally, are quite far from genuine Christianity. So the question arises: with whose resources is such literature being printed? The answer is simple: the West is sponsoring it. It dearly wants to undermine the faith in Russia and to enlist people in their ranks.
But this is not even the worst harm. Many sectarians use more horrible methods and resources. In order to draw new members into their ranks they have recourse not only to threats and tales about heaven and hell but often also to drugs and hypnosis. Here is just one of such incidents that took place in Arkhangelsk.
The doorbell rang. The retired former school teacher Nina Valentinovna opened the door. At the door she saw two elderly women. Smiling warmly the guests introduced themselves as sisters from one of the religious societies and suggested talking a bit about the Bible. The mistress invited them in. Her son was not at home that day; he was bored staying alone. She had to put a husky sheepdog into another room because he growled meanly at the visitors. After conversing a bit with the naive retiree, the "missionaries" left but they asked for permission to come by the next day. There were several more visits. They did not provoke any suspicion and so the apartment door was always open for them. It was just the threatening dog who hated strangers that growled behind the closed door.
One weekday (the sectarians came when the woman was alone) a regular meeting was held. Everything went as usual. The conversation drew to a close and suddenly one of the sisters suggested reading a text of holy scripture. She got out of her bag an old battered book. Here is how Nina Valentinovna described what happened: "I was surprised because I had not seen this book in their possession before. But I obediently opened to the indicated page. A yellowish green powder was scattered on the pages. A sharp smell struck my nose and my head began spinning, and I felt weak. Everything was flying before my eyes and these women were sitting there looking expectantly at me. I asked them to leave, but they did not even move. My strength left me. I do not know how but I got up and struggled over to the door of the room where the dog was sitting. Only then did the sectarians get up. I opened the door and the dog flew out growling at the women who already had run out into the stairway. I don't remember anything else; I passed out. When I came to I was lying on the floor and the dog was whimpering and licking my face."
Just what these pseudochristians wanted cannot be determined. It is clear that they never again were seen at this building.
Now a threat has arisen for the northerners in the appearance of a new and one of the most fearsome sects in the world, the "Neopentecostals." They are vigorously conquering their place in the sun in Russia. They have already caught Vologda in their web. In the form of paying a "tithe" the rank and file members of the sect are required to contribute their spending money, property, and apartments. Somehow this hierarchical system reminds one of slavery. The Neopentecostals are drawing into their ranks the most unstable elements of society, former drug addicts, alcoholics, and those who are disillusioned with life. They have built their own rehabilitation centers for them. The deaths of more than one person are on the hands of the sect. Murder of a sick baby is just one of the methods for cleansing from sins. The parents themselves are required to bring the victim. In complete delirium or a trance, under the influence of drugs and strange spells, mothers and fathers have smothered their children.
In one city of Vologda province, in a small private home at a regular mindless orgy a ten-year-old girl was killed. It was her grandmother, an avid sectarian, who committed the crime. Previously the child had been drugged with medicines. To the shrieks of the "brothers and sisters" in general hysteria the old woman's hands squeezed the tiny neck. The lifeless body was buried in the garden next to the house. Soon another crime occurred. A former drug addict killed her own son. The boy was not suffering from a serious disease. But the spiritual leaders persuaded the woman that her child was damned. And that she was guilty of that so that she was obligated to cleanse and save the child's soul. She again was under drugs and could not realize what was happening. The sect had already long before seized her apartment and totally subordinated the sick woman to it. And in another of the wild meetings at the dacha of one of the brothers in the sect a mother killed her closest friend. When she realized the next day what had happened she hanged herself.
The urgent question arises: where were the police? Why did the law enforcement agencies not stop this excess? However the problem is that it is practically impossible to prove these people's guilt. The sectarians are very deceptive. The victims are the "outcastes of society," who seek them out. Many of the members of the wild societies are mentally ill or otherwise can avoid trial. To a great extent the responsibility lies upon those who are near to them. We do not like to make disputes public. Take another Vologda incident. The neighbors noticed that a child had disappeared but they did not go to the police. Why raise a fuss; the child was sick and something happened. Besides the granny said that the child had gone away. The old woman was discovered accidentally in connection with other crimes.
So is it possible to avoid the sects? It is, but it depends on us to a great extent. One must not be so naive as to take everything on faith that they tell you at first meeting. Behind the beautiful words dark intentions may be concealed. When one crosses the line of consciousness a person winds up in a pit from which there is no return.
We asked for a comment about what we have described here from a consultant of the Department of Information and Public Relations of the administration of the Arkhangelsk province which is the department that deals with matters of religious confessions, Igor Georgiev. Here is what he said.
"The very name 'sect' is not a legal term. We public servants operate on the basis of the concepts from the law on freedom of conscience and religious associations--religious organization and religious group. The difference between them is that the former is a legal entity, registered by the offices of justice; it has its own bank account and can conduct economic activity. We have many such organizations in our province. But a group is a collection of people who maintain one or another faith and who get together on an individual basis and conduct rituals without informing the government agencies. Obviously it is much more difficult to control them. But they have the right to exist in accordance with the Russian standards of the law. Often some groups are members of an organization and they can avoid the rules established at the center."
"Igor Valentinovich, who conducts surveillance of their activity?"
"The Department of Justice. That is who checks up on observance of the established requirements. But again I have to say that they may not even know about the existence of a group if it does not announce itself publicly. The believers get together in some apartment and they do their own business, paying some "tithes" and preaching their own views. If there is some open violation of the law, then the articles of the criminal or administrative codes can be applied. There also are rules for the liquidation of an organization. But I personally have never heard about any legal cases in our province.
One can agree with Igor Georgiev. Russian legislation is too tolerant of the sects. The very concept does not even exist. In many countries of the world it even is written into the letter of the law. And strong barriers are erected to the spread of sectarianism. The European parliament has forbidden the existence of a number of destructive, totalitarian religious organizations that are dangerous for society. But in our country they are given the green light and are freely registered. (tr. by PDS, posted 6 September 2002)
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The prosecutor of the Omsk province filed suit in court for the liquidation of the local division of the "Russian National Unity" [RNE] movement. In the prosecutor's opinion, the emblem and seal of the organization contain the image of a stylized swastika and its members advocate racial, national, and religious conflict.
The prosecutor began an investigation of the activity of the local RNE in response to a letter from the head of the local department of the Ministry of Justice which, in its turn, cited the law "On combating extremist activity" which has taken effect. As the director of the department on affairs of social and religious associations of the department of the Ministry of Justice for Omsk province, Vladimir Fediaev, said, "There are here clear signs of incitement of national discord and propaganda of intolerance toward a number of peoples who live on the territory of the province." At the same time, it is doubted in the department of justice whether the local division of RNE can be considered an affiliate of the Barkashov movement or is an autonomous organization registered in Omsk in 1995.
It seems that the members of the Omsk RNE themselves are indifferent about whether they are considered Barkashovites or not. In the political arena of the region they play absolutely no role because of their small numbers (no more than 20 or thirty persons, even their leaders cannot give a precise number) and because the local population practically entirely rejects their views.
The only display of political activity by RNE on the local level was the unsuccessful campaign in 1998 by the leader of the division, Aleksei Nikolaev, for election to the Omsk city soviet. Later the Barkashovites surprisingly received from city hall permission for assemblies in the center of the city on Sundays. Here they distributed the RNE newspapers (the local edition of RNE is the "Omskii kolovrat," which came out only one time four years ago before elections) and they called citizens not to accept the taxpayer's identification number that contains the "number of the antichrist." However after the antiextremist law took effect, city hall forbade the gatherings of members of RNE. To be sure, they learned about this only from law enforcement officers who last Sunday dispersed those who arrived at their usual gathering place. The leader of the national patriots, Aleksei Nikolaev, prefers to go underground along with the hetman of the second division of the Siberian cossack host, Mikhail Konakhin, who is akin to the RNE movement.
Yesterday it became known that the prosecutor decided to prohibit completely the activity of the organization in Omsk. Omsk provincial prosecutor Sergei Kazakov sent to the provincial court a statement about the necessity of rescinding the registration of the Omsk organization of the social and political Russian National Unity movement and ruling for its liquidation. (tr. by PDS, posted 5 September 2002)
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The Russian Orthodox church does not want to lease Estonian churches that had belonged to it for centuries but in 1993, in the wave of reform, were turned over the Constantinople patriarchate. Despite the fact that the payment for the use of the churches would be actually symbolic (one Estonian krona, or one sixth of an American dollar, per month), such a form of resolving the drawn-out conflict between RPTs and the Estonian Apostolic church does not suit the Moscow patriarchate. This was stated to a Vremia novostei reporter by the director of the secretariat for inter-Orthodox relations of the Moscow patriarchate, Nikolai Balashov.
The Estonian internal affairs ministry took the initiative for settling the existing disputes between the sister churches through the lease arrangement. At issue are fifteen churches that RPTs is being offered for rent for fifty years. The Estonian government wants to achieve a positive conclusion of this matter quickly. But responses of dissatisfaction have already been issued from Moscow. "In the course of conversations between Moscow and Constantinople in 1996 an agreement was reached whereby each parish should independently determine its own jurisdictional affiliation," Archpriest Nikolai Balashov explained, "and accordingly church property was supposed to be assigned according to the pleasure of the parishes. This agreement was confirmed at a meeting of our delegations in 2001. But the problem is that the Constantinople patriarchate did not ratify our agreement by resolution of its Holy Synod."
Moscow will not consent to agree to the lease of churches from the Constantinople patriarchate while negotiations for their final assignment are continuing. "It turns out that now our believers are worshipping in these churches without any kind of legal bases," the representative of the Moscow patriarchate thinks. "Besides, this compromise is fraught with serious problems for the future. After all the Estonian Apostolic church of the Constantinople patriarchate has not renounced its rights of restitution with regard to these objects."
Confidence in their own strengths probably will bring ultimate diplomatic success to RPTs. Just this spring, after nine years of disputes the Russian church achieved registration of its church structures in the Estonian Ministry of Justice. Thus religious diplomats intend to defend the rights of the Russian Orthodox parishioners without compromise. (tr. by PDS, posted 4 September 2002)
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On this date 59 years ago, in 1943, Stalin received the patriarchal caretaker, Metropolitan Sergius Stragorodsky, Metropolitan Alexis of Leningrad, and Metropolitan Nikolai of Galicia. As "Komsomolskaia pravda" reported: "At the time of the conversation Metropolitan Sergius brought to the attention of the chairman of the Sovnarkom that within the leading circles of the Orthodox church there is the intention to call in the near future a council of bishops for electing the patriarch of Moscow and all-Rus and forming a Holy Synod in the patriarchate. The head of the government, comrade J. Stalin, received these suggestions sympathetically and declared that there would be no impediments to this on the part of the government."
This was a most important milestone, signifying Stalin's turnabout toward a new policy with respect to the church and religion. From a policy of force with regard to religious organizations, which were viewed as a class enemy subject to liquidation, Stalin moved to a policy of formal tolerance and cautious respect for the church and religious figures.
Before 1943 the church had so vigorously shown itself in the antifascist struggle that it was impossible not to reckon with this and with the growth of religious attitudes that are inevitable during wartime. A great number of clergy came out of the prisons and camps, including eleven bishops. In September 1943 the first issue of the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate came out and ecclesiastical educational institutions and new churches began opening.
However, while permitting the church to come out of the "social cellar" into which it had been driven by the bolsheviks in the first years of soviet rule, Stalin placed it under his own strict control that was carried out daily by organs of the NKVD. The Council for Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church that was created at the time was headed by State Security Lieutenant G.G. Karpov, who previously had headed the antichurch division of NKVD. (tr. by PDS, posted 4 September 2002)
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