Urenting in Christ

The other day, the lawyer of the priest of the Russian Orthodox Church Gleb Gromovsky, accused of pedophilia, said that his client is somewhere in Israel-no longer "not as a priest, but as a citizen." The press appeared that a fugitive clergyman was hiding in a convent.

Shortly before the start of this loud scandal, it happened to me to somehow drink with one honored priest. By the end of the conversation, he mentioned that one of his brothers, the head of a noticeable youth organization, was a clear pedophile. And to his own son made unambiguous sites.

I did not ask my interlocutor why he did not complain to the diocesan administration or law enforcement agencies. I have to hear similar stories regularly. And they do not always end safely for complaining.

Obviously, the problem of pedophilia within the Russian Orthodox Church exists. And the proof of this is not only private conversations, but also specific criminal cases that Russian law enforcement officers occasionally start - and which are even less likely to become public.

For example, two years ago, an employee of the Kostroma diocese, abbot Khariton (open spaces) was planted behind the pedophilia . Prior to this, Orthodox newspapers accused of pedophilia a senior employee of the Nizhny Novgorod diocese , Archpriest Valentin Sazanov .

Of course, we can say that the church is large, there are many priests in it, and in every large team there are villains. So often they say Orthodox activists and priests. However, the matter, of course, is different. The Russian Orthodox Church is actively engaged in working with children. Their involvement in various forms of church and near-church activity is a task that has been sequentially realized since the late 1990s. Actually, in addition to the parish ministry and money money, communication with children (and less often by adolescents) is the most important part of the church “doing”.

The reasons are clear. Education of children is the only way to attract at least some of them in the ranks of the parishioners over time. There are few believing parents. Orthodox grandmothers mostly died out. So, as a rule, Russian children with older relatives do not go to church. Orthodox youth organizations partly fill this gap, allowing to at least reproduce a church asset.

Similar parish activities against children and youth are the norm in any European country. And it is carried out on a much larger scale than in Russia. I had to be at the world meeting of Catholic youth with Pope, and in the German youth forums Lutheran. And dozens, or even hundreds (as a meeting with dad) of thousands of young people who have gathered on them (PASOMI with full -time and freelance workers of their parishes), of course, impress.

The problem of the Russian Orthodox Church is that for objective reasons she was able to begin this work only recently - just 25 years ago. And, unlike the Western churches, she completely sent her into the hands of non -professionals. In the West, either trained (including pedagogy) priests or professional teachers work mainly with children and youth. All of them pass tests for psychological stability and are periodically checked. But this does not save the same Catholics from numerous pedophile scandals.

In the Russian Orthodox Church, anyone can deal with children. Even if the teacher is a priest, this does not mean that he has not only pedagogical, but at least a complete secondary education. And there is no talk of tests and checks at all.

Yes, in the last decade of the Russian Orthodox Church, it was preoccupied with the training of pedagogical personnel for its needs at the expense of Russian taxpayers. But there are few such teachers, and in most cases it cannot be said that their preparation and retraining (as well as their psychological status) meet the general requirements. I also had to see qualified teachers with secular education, who effectively led Sunday schools at temples. However, the overall picture is depressing. This is especially true for monastic shelters and quite numerous military sports clubs in individual temples, where among leaders you can find anyone, and practices of "physical hardening", especially far from parents, can be very diverse.

As for Gleb Grozovsky himself, his version of the “order” from the side of his parent-supporting parent could be seriously considered only before his name fell on news feeds and the situation began to comment on the official representatives of the Moscow Patriarchate. His small lie about a certain business trip to Israel (the confessor in an organization belonging to the Pentecostals, whose activities were recently specially condemned by his ruling bishop; bypassing the Holy Synod, usually taking such decisions, etc.), stubborn reluctance to return - all this indicates him. However, it can be assumed that the real reason for the “business trip” was the presence of the Grozovsky Israeli passport, with which he from the “historical homeland” is hardly issued to Russia.

What conclusions can be drawn from this story?

Probably, it would not be a sin to pay closer attention to numerous Orthodox organizations in Russia who are working with children and adolescents so touching to the Russian state, which is so touching about Russian children abroad.

In my deep conviction, the monks should be removed from raising children in principle. The abandonment of sexual relations, required from the monks, leads to deep changes in the psyche, and is not worthless so that its condition be checked for children.

Frequent in Russia to parents, who believes that the presence of a priest next to children guarantees them security and proper education, it is necessary to pay attention to the personality of this priest. So that the next priest with the reputation of the "maniac" (which Grozovsky used in the camp spiritually fed) did not engage in the laying of minors in the bed.