The rise and fall of the Lord Hilarion

The Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church sharply reacted to the sexual scandal around the head of the Budapest-Hungarian diocese. But it's not about Harassment

The Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church sharply reacted to the revealing publication of one of the emigrant media about Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeev) - a bright and recognizable Russian hierarch. It can be stated that his church career is completed. But what other troubles can wait for the finished theologian and composer, who, by his own admission, did not fit into the “very cool turn” of the story that happened in the beginning of 2022? And how will all this affect the reputation of the Russian Orthodox Church, unless, of course, this reputation still exists?

In the scandal, which seemed to begin as sexy, but out of something much larger, iconic, the observer of the “new” understands.

OFFICIALLY
Journal No. 78 meetings of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church on July 25, 2024.

There were a judgment on the situation in the Budapest-Hungarian diocese.

Decided:

1. To form a commission on the study of the situation in the Budapest-Hungarian diocese.

2. During the work of the aforementioned commission, temporarily remove the Metropolitan of the Budapest and Hungarian Hilarion from the Office of the Budapest-Hungarian diocese.

3. The Provisional Directorate of the Budapest-Hungarian diocese is entrusted with the Patriarch of Western Europe by the Patriarch of Western Europe, Metropolitan of Korsunsky and Western European Nestor.

4. To dismiss Metropolitan Hilarion from the posts of the Chairman of the Synodal Bibli-Bogoslovsk Commission and the chairman of the Inter-Social Presence Commission on Theology and Theological Education and appoint the acting chairman of both commissions of the Grace Bishop Yegoryevsky Methodius, including him in the inters-collection presence.

Gay God VS "Traditional values"

For the Moscow Patriarchate, this was not a secret. Among students of Moscow spiritual schools - for the most part, the ironic, and sometimes cynical ones, this hierarch was called "Aunt Larisa." The nickname "with a hint" began to use even loyal ROC Orthodox bloggers. But it was considered a bad tone to agree to the end - the hint was to remain a hint, it was customary to speak the language of the Byzantine half -tones on the patriarchy sidelines. In addition, there is a commandment: "Do not judge, but you will not be convicted."

The first to seriously approached the topic by the frantic exposure of the “blue lobby” Deacon Andrei Kuraev, now erupted from the dignity to the Russian Orthodox Church (but adopted by the Patriarchate of Constantinople), “foreign immigrant”. He, in particular, wrote about the formation in the Russian Orthodox Church, seemingly struggling to fight for the “traditional values”, esoteric gay-word.

The patrologist Alexei Dunaev studied this phenomenon and noted that it was based partly on the apocryphal (that is, rejected by the official Church) the Gospel of Thomas, and partly on the legacy of the Gnostic sects of the first centuries of Christianity, which considered physical contacts with a woman the source of the sin of the human race - “bad”. But the canonical gospels give clues for such a doctrine (recall the scene of the secret party where women were not allowed, and the youngest student John linked at the chest of Jesus - John. 13:23).

This motive sounds in the published audio studies of Metropolitan Hilarion with an 18-year-old hypodiacon from Japan George Suzuki:

“All my cells left themselves. And always the reason was the same. Always! The reason was a woman. "

According to Dunaev’s observations, Halarion’s interest in gay-word manifested itself at the early stage of his scientific career, when in the early 1990s, studying in Oxford, he translated into Russian fragments of the life of the monk of the X century. The Simeon of the reverent, containing homoerotic allusions.

According to the testimonies of the young mortgage, the audio recordings of conversations with Hilarion and private photos made by him, the Metropolitan clearly violated his monastic vows and canonical rules, although, so to speak, the matter did not come to full sex.

Hilarion willingly shared his version of what was happening in Budapest in 2022-2023. First with an “undesirable” publication, and then with the State Agency of RIA Novosti . Of course, a woman is to blame for everything-this time Veronika Suzuki, whom George calls her mother, but Hilarion denies their kinship, hinting that this woman allegedly played the role of a robber pimp. The Metropolitan accused her of trying to shake 384 thousand euros from him in exchange for refusing to publish records illegally made in Hilarion’s bedrooms and offices.

He promised to sue George and Veronica, although the former hypodiacon is already on the international wanted list after he robbed the Metropolitan at the end of last year and expectedly disappeared in Japan.

Suzuki does not deny the fact of theft of clock and cash, but insists that he took them as if “as a bail” - so that there was an object of bargaining with a former “papik”. The Metropolitan could not intelligently explain why he himself offered a allowance that escaped from him Suzuki in the amount of 2000 euros per month. According to Hilarion, in addition to the money, Suzuki sought him to refuse accusations against George. The metropolitan asks emotional rhetorical questions: “Suddenly it turns out that the criminal was a victim? Why did he not immediately declare to the police if he was undergoing harassment? Why wait six months? And why was it to steal things and money from a bishop's apartment? " And in conclusion, he expresses the hope that the thief will be in prison. Probably, with this outcome, the conscience of the monk-hierarch will calm down.

In the immediate environment of Hilarion, they had previously noticed young people of Asian appearance. For example, his deacon is Vyacheslav Lee, who previously performed the functions like George Suzuki, but later married and was ordained a holy dignity. One of the first favorites of Metropolitan was Hieromonk John (Kopeikin), now banned in the service and fled from Russia.

“New” spoke about him in connection with the scandal caused by the design of elite real estate in Spain on Hilarion, where Kopeikin periodically lived. In addition to close friendship, they were connected and, so to speak, business relations: a graduate of the Penza Spiritual School headed the magistracy of general church graduate school and doctoral studies (DRCAD) of the Russian Orthodox Church, the rector of which was Hilarion. Together, they deduced the ANO “Center Knowledge”, which makes textbooks for theological schools of the Russian Orthodox Church, from the structure of the DCAD to the structure of the Cognition charity fund, the only founder of which is Hilarion.

In public space, as befits a Metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church, Hilarion takes a completely "crest" position. Most recently, he drawn up the conclusion of the Synodal Biblical-Bogoslovsk Commission with a sharp criticism of the new Vatican document on the possibility of a “extra-religious” blessing of same-sex couples. Earlier, he actively supported Russian laws on the prohibition of propaganda of LGBT* and "scientifically" discussed the formation of sexual orientation "in early childhood and youth."

History with the addictions of Hilarion, who had so excited the public, are parables not only about hypocrisy of the modern hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church, but also about specific corruption schemes that intertwine church ministry, theology, intimate, big money and power. The point here is not at all in "sexual orientation."

Wealth

It is clear that the Patriarch was by no means an intimate details of Hilarion’s personal life, which he had long known for a long time and who, in principle, were not able to surprise the “churchman with experience”. The romantic side of this drama only matters in the sense that, due to love, the 57-year-old Metropolitan has so lost his head that it was wrapped in the insidious youth of different secrets of patriarchy life and near-church “business schemes”, throwing a shadow at the Patriarch himself and his relationship with sponsors.

The picture here is little different from the centuries -old Russian practice:

Everyone who receives a position is stealing and sins, but if they take it “not according to the rank” or allow information leak, then the corporation punishes. Intoxicated by the air of Hungarian freedom, Hilarion just violated the regime of secrecy.

The property of publicity was his Hungarian passport issued bypassing legal procedures three months after the appointment of Hilarion to Budapest. Also flowed into the press, data on extensive real estate, supposedly belonging to him, as the media is assured: the estate for more than two million euros in the vicinity of Budapest (Hilarion himself calls him a “castle”, although for the public this is a “monster”), apartments in Moscow and Spain, dachas in the Moscow Region and on the French shore of Lake Geneva.

The metropolitan does not see in the luxurious lifestyle in the accompanying him (rest in elite resorts, expensive cars for himself and favorites, collections of wines, watches, etc.) of any violation of monastic vows. From time to time, he continues to insist that all this was acquired for honestly earned fees from theological books, church films and musical works (which, by the way, are almost not performed).

The much more read theologian Andrei Kuraev admits that in our time the publication of theological literature is a loss -making matter, and even Pope Benedict XVI “earned” “introduction to Christianity” or “Jesus of Nazareth” on his bestsellers.

Therefore, the topic of the assets and lifestyle of Hilarion, of course, entails the theme of his “sponsors” and the financial life of the Russian Orthodox Church as a whole - and he pronounces it with George Suzuki. This is much more interesting than monastic bed scenes!

Hilarion at ease shared with mortgage information about the real sources of his beautiful life. In particular, he admitted that the sponsors allocated part of the money for the purchase of the castle, believing that they were donated to the ROC monastery (in a mansion of 2360 square meters, Ilarion lived only with George and the servant - there were no signs of the formation of the monastic fraternity).

Hilarion complains of one of his many years of sponsors - Valery Kogan, who heads the Ist Line company, which runs Domodedovo Airport (Forbes estimated his assets of $ 2.5 billion belonging to him).

The metropolitan is upset that Kogan stopped answering calls, despite the previously these promises to transfer money every month.

At a dinner at the restaurant, Hilarion told George about more serious contacts. In particular, the Metropolitan was allegedly invited to meet with Peter Aven, who has the status of the richest citizen of Latvia (with a fortune of $ 4.3 billion). Ilarion also recognized the receipt of “donations” from the metallurgical tycoon Dmitry Pumpyansky, the former co -owner of the “Trubnaya Metallurgical Company” and the President of the Sverdlovsk Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (his fortune is estimated at $ 3.3 billion), which “helps just like that, and from the developer of the year of Nisanov (with the same state).

Calling these names, the Metropolitan indirectly admitted that he violated the ban on Patriarch Kirill: "All major oligarchs help his Holy, and the Holy forbade forbidden to help someone not through him." Moreover, he allowed himself to criticize and humiliate the chief: “He supports those projects that are interesting to him ... For example, the Savior TV channel - crazy money goes there for completely mediocre production of content ... But the Holy Like, because everything is about him ... But this is a squalor!”

In conclusion, the interlocutors even tried to calculate the bills in the patriarchal pocket: Hilarion reports that his Moscow parish (“all mourning joy” in the Horde) allegedly delivered more than 4 million rubles a year to the Patriarchate, and more than a hundred metropolitan parishes surrendered the same amounts (the rest are smaller). That is, only from Moscow with its 600 temples the Patriarch received more than a billion. And the dioceses passed even more (and there are 325 of them in the Russian Orthodox Church).

The budget of the Russian Orthodox Church, and even more so - personally a patriarch, a secret behind seven seals. The leak that Hilarion allowed was a genuine cause of punishment that fell upon him.

Ambition

Although the Synod was not released by the composition of the commission, which will investigate the Hilarion case, experts agree that it will be headed by the current favorite of Cyril, 39-year-old chairman of the department of external church ties, Metropolitan Anthony (Sevryuk).

“New”, having studied it an unprecedented rapid career, back in 2020 suggested that it was his Cyril sees his successor. Anthony is even very similar to young Cyril and is characterized by cluteness and non -publicity, which the current head of the Russian Orthodox Church so much appreciates in hierarchs. According to the charter of the Russian Orthodox Church, in October, when Anthony is 40 years old, he will receive the right to nominate his candidacy for the patriarchal throne.

But more recently, Hilarion was considered a real candidate.

The official website of the Patriarchate is still adorned by a pompous biography with a listing of many scientific and musical creations, awards and honorary titles of different states, churches and universities

(Ilarion 25).

When Cyril only became a patriarch, Hilarion tried to realize his ambitions with his blessing, putting forward his candidacy for the liberated throne of the Primate of the Local Orthodox Church with the controversial status - American. As the researcher of the history of American Orthodoxy recalls, a journalist from New York Svetlana Weiss, Hilarion did not immediately love in America “for arrogance and arrogance. These disgusting features for the American mentality quite quickly nullified friendly relations with the church hierarchy of America, leaving only officials for communication. And the Metropolitan did not strictly allow contacts with ordinary Orthodox during his visits. ”

However, he was always accompanied by a lot of money: the main educational institution of the Orthodox Church of America (PCA), the Holy-Vladimir Seminary, titled him with “our sponsor”, publishing Hilarion in English one after another. The official announcement of one of these publications said that he was supported by an “anonymous sponsor”. It is assumed that they could be one of the state corporations, which is generally famous for its financing of church projects.

The election of Hilarion was then prevented by the efforts of the “Minister of Foreign Affairs” of this church, Archpriest Leonid Kishkovsky, who managed to convince Patriarch Kirill that his protege would not be given to the US residence permit (Green Card) and embarrassment will happen. If not for the effort about. Leonida, PCA was threatened with the absorption of the Moscow Patriarchate, to which the Russian foreign church was exposed a few years earlier.

Nevertheless, until his beginning, his Hilarion did not leave America outside the zone of his interests-his regular visits over the ocean were solemnly and richly and often accompanied by the discoveries of some new funds “at the expense of anonymous sponsors”. The last was the Patriarch Kirill Foundation with a charter capital of 250 thousand dollars, opened in November 2021. After the start of hostilities in Ukraine, this fund ceased its activities, and Hilarion lost the right to enter the United States and the placement of his assets there.

Forecast

The same Andrei Kuraev in March offered the ROC Synod to quietly dismiss Hilarion to rest, without waiting for a loud international scandal with a shade of harassment. Nevertheless, the Synod waited for a public exposure, carrying huge reputational risks for the Russian Orthodox Church.

Because, firstly, the hierarch became the accused, which for many years personified the "enlightened", the human face of the Patriarchate. And secondly, having a huge amount of information about the leadership of the Patriarchate, including “On the Most Holy”, which may also be in public space in case of too strong pressure on Hilarion. The war of compromises is one of the main fears of the Patriarch: when in January the other disgraced metropolitan, Leonid (Gorbachev) threatened it in January, Cyril immediately lost and left him alone.

However, there is another alarming scenario. In the published correspondence of Hilarion with George Suzuki and his mother, the hierarch shares his thoughts about suicide and even outlines his scripts. God forbid that these fantasies are not perceived by someone like a hint. In any case, this drama of a talented person who involuntarily became a beneficiary and a victim of systemic vices of modern Russian Orthodox Church is still far from completion.