AsiaNews:
Moscow (AsiaNews) – The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Aleksij II, has died at the age of 79. The Patriarchate did not give a reason for his death but he had been sick for some time.
Aleksij became Patriarch of all Russia in 1990, the first head of the Church elected without the influence of the Russian government.
He was credited with helping restore the freedom and moral authority of the Russian Orthodox Church after decades of repression under communism, but many priests who had been arrested and sent to the gulag accused him of being a spy for the Soviet secret police (KGB).
He was seen as a supporter of Putin’s New Russia.
In relation to the Catholic Church he always refused to meet Pope John Paul II, pointing the finger at alleged “proselytising” by Russian Catholics.
Catholic-Orthodox ecumenism was substantially held back under his leadership.
Bolding mine. I'm not finding anything in English about how the new patriarch will be elected, but I'll keep looking. The question is if Alexy's successor will be a bit more accommodating or if he'll remain as firm in the Russian Orthodox Church's position as Alexy was vis a vis the Catholic Church. Time will tell, obviously.
RIP
Edit: Just a general search of 'Patriarch Alexy' here for your convenience.
2 comments:
I'm wondering if the new Patriarch (Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk,born 1946,seems likeliest?) will have less of a KGB-spy record than the late Patriarch who was chosen just as the Soviet Union was dying.
Kiril would be the most likely candidate. If he has a record with KGB, I'd assume we'd know of it by now. Or Putin made any links between his favored candidate and KGB disappear.
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