Archpriest Chaplin criticized economists who consider the Orthodox countries the most unsuccessful

The head of the Synodal Department for the relationship between the Church and Society, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, does not agree with those who consider the Orthodox countries the most depressed in the economic sense. The future, according to him, is in the transition from the growth economy to the sufficiency economy, Interfax reports.

"Many today with contempt and neglect speak of the Orthodox peoples as economically unsuccessful. They build graphs of the dependence of economic prosperity on religion. Say, atheists are the most successful, Protestants are a little less, Catholics, and the Orthodox are the most poor and unhappy," said Father Vsevolod, answering questions department.

Instead of arguing with this scheme, the priest recalled the following: "Many modern economists who do not suffer from market fundamentalism say that the growth of economics and consumption cannot be endless and that the peoples who can move away from the idea of ​​indispensable and unable to restrained growth will be more successful in conditions when this growth will stop."

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He will cease, according to the father of Vsevolod, "be sure to sooner or later, because the resources of the planet are limited, and consumption, even meaningless, cannot grow endlessly."

Considering that "we must move from the growth economy to the sufficiency economy," the priest noted that "it was the sufficiency and self -restraint in the acquisition of earthly goods that have always been characteristic of Orthodox civilization."

"In her traditions, there was not an endless multiplication of material wealth, but the ability to be content with small or at least a reasonable amount of earthly goods. It is thought that this approach is a future. And today we need to state it in the categories of economic science and building an economic system," said Father Vsevolod.

Such a model of the economy, in his conviction, will be much more successful than the idea of ​​eternal growth and boundless consumption, "which cannot but end in collapse."

At the same time, evaluating the current level of prosperity of Russian pensioners, the priest called on the state and society to seriously think about why people who gave themselves to the service of the country and retired live at the level of the subsistence minimum, and sometimes below this level.

“The pension should be worthy. And society is called to take care of this, especially if in this society most people call themselves Christians,” the representative of the church is convinced.

Note that a month ago Chaplin warned the clergy of passion for luxury. “Of course, the clergy should decisively not coincide with the consumer ideal that we periodically see today: majority that causes luxury, stratification inside the clergy on the rich and poor. This is very bad,” he admitted. At the same time, Chaplin and against the situation in which the priests would be in poverty. "We will have a bastard or crazy priests if we will allow us to convince us that the clergy should live the poorest," he said.

Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin has more than once spoke on the topic "Material benefits and church."

Two years ago, he answered the questions of the audience of the youth lecture hall in Moscow, explained in detail why the Russian Orthodox Church needs luxury and why clergymen have the right to wear expensive things. He expressed the belief that all this external wealth is necessary in order to "reflect the public prestige of the Church."

“People want the temples of God, and the vestments of the clergy, and the elements associated with the public prestige of the clergy would be as visible as possible and reflect the place of the Church in the life of society that any believer considers central,” the chairman of the sheep said.

He noted that church resources are usually not spent on "solemn moments and jewelry", and "the so -called luxury" in the church is created due to donations, which is completely natural. “People want church celebrations to be the most beautiful and most solemn,” Vsevolod Chaplin said.

"When people sacrifice something on the temple, so that the clergy look worthy, including in the face of all the powers of all this world, who measure the attitude to a person with money, this is a person’s natural desire to show that the most important thing is not a rational expenditure of funds for certain transient needs that will never be fully replenished, but the initiation of their money, their works to what belongs to God, to those symbols, which are reminiscent of the symbols, which are reminiscent of the symbols, which are reminiscent To us that the main thing is not a politics, not an economy, not the philistine needs of a person, not his material interests, but the presence of God, his secrets and spiritual vertical in the world around us, ”he said.

The same people who reproach the clergy of luxury, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin called the ill -wishers and compared with Judah. After all, it was he who said that it is not necessary to spend precious Miro on the anoint of the body of Jesus Christ, but you need to sell it to the world and distribute money to the poor.

Speaking a year ago at a press conference in Stavropol, Chaplin said that representatives of the clergy should not be shy to accept expensive gifts, since people express their love in this.

"If someone decorates the temples, this is a manifestation of love for temples. If someone gives the patriarch the vestments, the icon, the car, the clock-this is a manifestation of love for the Patriarch, which is completely natural. Why suddenly we began to persistently convince that we should be ashamed of this and tear hair on this occasion?" he expressed bewilderment.

Chaplin believes that there are certain circles that want to use any reason to “train” the church, make it be silent and not go to the public platform.

"So twenty years of the Catholic Church have been trained, especially in Western Europe and the United States. As soon as the Catholic Church begins to talk about the inadmissibility of abortion, immorality of modern global economic structure, the campaigns of the diocese or rejection from the Catholic Church immediately begin, and now many Catholic bishops begin to infuse this campaign," said the representative of the Moscow Moscow Patriarchate.