RUSSIA RELIGION NEWS


Romanov family complains about Russian church's hesitation regarding tsarist relics

AUTHENTICY OF "EKATERINBURG REMAINS" CONFIRMED BY EXPERTS AT MEETING WITH PATRIARCH IN JUNE, ROMANOV ASSOCIATION DECLARES

Interfax-Religiia, 10 July 2017

 

Experts confirmed the authenticity of the "Ekaterinburg remains," reported an official representative of the Romanov Family Association in Russia, Ivan Artsithevsky, to Interfax on Monday.

 

"There is movement on this matter. The patriarch had a meeting in June where all experts confirmed that the remains are genuine. Now the church is silent. It is difficult to explain their silence," I. Artsishevsky said.

 

The Romanov Association is convinced that the issue of the burial of the remains of Tsarevich Alexis and Grand Princess Maria is much more important than the discussion of Aleksei Uchitel's film "Matilda."

 

"If this question is political, then I do not understand where the politics are here. In our country it is forbidden to show the film where Nicholas II kisses, but when the emperor's children are not buried everybody is silent," I. Artsishevsky complained.

 

At the same time he expressed regret regarding contacts of representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Romanov House with Grand Princess Maria Vladimirovna. "The Madrid Romanov House does not exist; it is an absolutely illegitimate organization. If the RPTs works with the illegitimate organization, then shame on the RPTs. The whole world recognizes the Romanovs but the church decides in its own way. But I am an Orthodox person; I distinguish between the church of Christ and a collection of bishops," I. Artsishevsky added.

 

Interfax does not have in its possession a commentary from the church.

 

In the press service of the Museum of History of St. Petersburg (in the Peter-Paul fortress) Interfax was told that at the present time the institution is not preparing for new burials.

 

"Nothing is happening now. Alexander III's grave has been restored and other actions are not planned. But this is not our question. Here everything depends on the Russian Orthodox Church and the administration of the city," the news agency's interlocutor specified.

 

As reported, in mid-June in Moscow there was a conference under the chairmanship of Patriarch Kirill on the question of establishing the identity of the "Ekaterinburg remains." Participants in the session included representatives of the Investigative Committee of Russia, led by chairman Alexander Bastrykin, and members of the special church commission on the "Ekaterinburg remains." The session heard interim reports on the conduct of appointed expert analyses within the framework of a criminal case prepared by representatives of the Investigative Committee of Russia and the expert community.

 

At the same time the Investigative Committee of Russia decided to publish the results of the expert analyses that have already been completed in the case of the murder of members of the tsarist family.

 

In January of this year the secretary of the church commission on the "Ekaterinburg remains," Bishop Tikhon, declared to the Interfax-Religiia portal that genetic expert analyses were being conducted in the best laboratories of the world, a very extensive anthropological expert analysis has been completed "with fundamentally new information," and historical and criminological expert analyses are being conducted. As regards the recognition or nonrecognition of the remains as sacred relics, the bishop said, "final conclusions will be made only by a bishops' council." (tr. by PDS, posted 10 July 2017)


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