VLADIMIR LEGOIDA ACCUSES ST. PETERSBURG GOVERNMENT OF VIOLATION OF LAW AND IGNORING REALITY IN DISPUTE ABOUT STATUS OF ST. ISAAC'S CATHEDRAL
Portal-credo.ru, 4 September 2015
The chairman of the synod's Information Department of the Moscow patriarchate, Vladimir Legoida, commenting on the refusal of St. Petersburg authorities to transfer St. Isaac's cathedral to the RPTsMP for use without charge, expressed surprise at the decision ignoring federal law.
"The rationale of the St. Petersburg government in favor of keeping St. Isaac's cathedral within the operating administration of the museum of the same name is puzzling. It not only violates the law but it simply does not correspond to reality," Patriarkhia.ru quotes Legoida. At the present time the executive authority of St. Petersburg is headed by Georgy Poltavchenko, who previously was famous for his closeness to Metropolitan Kirill Gundiaev.
"In the first place, the federal law regulating the procedure for transfer to religious organizations of property designed for religious use has a clearly defined list of grounds for refusal. And among them there is no provision for the possibility of rejecting an application for transfer of a building because the expenses for its maintenance, in the event of a positive decision, will lie on the city," he continued.
"Besides, the fear of the St. Petersburg government about the expenses for the restoration and maintenance of St. Isaac's cathedral becoming a burden for the city budget, as suggested, are baseless," the representative of the patriarchate emphasized.
The chairman of the synod's Information Department recalled that the director of the section of communications of the St. Petersburg metropolitanate of the RPTsMP, Natalia Rodomanova, earlier declared: the church intends to maintain this monument of architecture exactly as it maintains other churches—at the expense of the parishes.
"At the present time, money for maintenance of St. Isaac's cathedral is obtained at the expense of its visitors—parishioners and tourists. Nothing in this plan will change after the transfer of the cathedral to the Russian Orthodox Church. Really it is possible that the share of contributions by Orthodox believers in the total amount of money collected will increase," the representative of the patriarchate noted.
"The Russian Orthodox Church has a rich experience of fruitful cooperation with the museum community. There is no desire to get into a conflict in the case of St. Isaac's cathedral. I think that there is a possibility of finding a resolution that will satisfy everybody," Legoida concluded. (tr. by PDS, posted 5 September 2015)
Editorial disclaimer: RRN does
not intend to certify the accuracy of information
presented in articles. RRN simply intends to certify the
accuracy of the English translation of the contents of the
articles as they appeared in news media of countries of
the former USSR.
If material is quoted, please give credit to the
publication from which it came. It is not necessary to credit
this Web page. If material is transmitted electronically, please
include reference to the URL,
http://www.stetson.edu/~psteeves/relnews/.