Conditionally guilty and exiled - to a resort

The Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church sent the compromised Metropolitan Hilarion to “retire” - to Karlovy Vary, where he can maintain influence

A line has been drawn under the high-profile case of Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeev), who until recently was considered one of the potential candidates for the patriarchal throne. Perhaps not the last. The Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, which met for its meeting under the chairmanship of the patriarch on December 27 in the Moscow St. Daniel Monastery, “retired” the former Metropolitan of Budapest and Hungary and the former chairman of the Department for External Church Relations. Hilarion’s new place of ministry was the beautiful Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Karlovy Vary (Czech Republic), which since 1979 has housed the representation of the Russian Orthodox Church at the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia.

Plot and verdict

Let us recall that at the beginning of this year Hilarion was left by his cell attendant and subdeacon, 21-year-old (at that time) Japanese citizen George Suzuki. Before returning home, he stole an expensive watch and several thousand euros from the Metropolitan’s safe as “collateral.” As Suzuki argued, the “deposit” was required for bargaining with the metropolitan in the process of obtaining compensation for moral damage caused to the cell attendant.

From Hilarion’s later published correspondence with Veronica Suzuki, whom George calls his mother (and Hilarion doubts this), it is clear that the hierarch offered to pay the family “compensation” in the amount of 2,000 euros per month for 16 years. However, Veronica demanded the entire amount - almost 400 thousand - at once. The parties did not reach an agreement - and the conflict became publicized through foreign media.

George accused the Metropolitan of sexual harassment, posting several audio and video recordings of rather racy content, in which, among other things, Hilarion boasted about his “cool” sponsors and patrons. The Metropolitan did everything to put the former cell attendant on the international wanted list, although he claims that he returned everything stolen from the safe long ago.

Hilarion’s official position sounds something like this: “there was no sex,” the authenticity of the recordings is questionable, and “the thief should be in prison.” However, Patriarch Kirill and the Synod did not take the word of the honored hierarch.

At the July meeting of the synod, Hilarion was removed from the administration of the diocese and from all church positions, and a special commission of inquiry was appointed in his case, which, however, did not work very actively. After several visits to Russia, Hilarion organized an examination of Suzuki’s films, the results of which were published by the “status” agency RAPSI, whose founders include the Constitutional and Supreme Courts of the Russian Federation. The examination was carried out by the Truth Center for Law and Forensic Expertise, which is also close to law enforcement agencies. She identified signs of editing and editing in Suzuki's amateur recordings, and also refused to identify the person who went into bed with the young man as Metropolitan Hilarion.

The results of the study were promoted by RIA Novosti. At the synod meeting in October, Hilarion’s case was not returned to.

And the current decision is difficult to perceive as a verdict.

The Synod itself avoided any clear canonical assessment of Hilarion’s actions. He only humbly asked the patriarch (if he deems it necessary) to “draw the attention of Metropolitan Hilarion to the discrepancy between the nature of his relations with his inner circle and his way of life with the image of a monk and clergyman.”

But how many bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, including members of the Synod, have a life consistent with the image of a monk?

Indeed, according to a number of journalistic investigations (including Novaya ), Hilarion may own luxury real estate in Russia, Hungary, France and Spain. But even this property cannot be compared with the apartments, palaces and yachts of the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church and Kirill himself. According to the ancient monastic rule (and the patriarch in the Russian Orthodox Church is not just the chief monk, but also the abbot of a number of largest monasteries), only the instruction that is carried out by the mentor himself is considered authoritative. In this sense, the patriarch's calls for monastic non-covetousness sound too... postmodern.

In the modern history of the Russian Orthodox Church, there have been several cases when bishops were punished due to accusations of violating the monastic vow of chastity, that is, in the language of criminal law, actions of a sexual nature.

Under Patriarch Alexy II, Ekaterinburg Bishop Nikon (Mironov) was exiled to a monastery for three years, who subsequently received the rich Moscow Church of the Assumption in Veshnyaki “to feed.” Bishop Gury (Shalimov), accused of harassment, was first transferred from Paris to Magadan, and then dismissed with the right to serve in the Moscow Kazan Church in Kolomenskoye.

Under Patriarch Kirill, tougher decisions were also made - bishops Flavian and Ignatius , accused of harassment, were defrocked. But Metropolitan Hilarion is a heavyweight, with great connections and great knowledge about the relationships with those around him and the way of life of the patriarch and the members of the Synod themselves.

According to Deacon Andrei Kuraev*, it was precisely the blackmail of Synod members by publishing compromising evidence on them that could lead to such a lenient decision. According to another source close to the Patriarchate, Hilarion had to share.

As a result, on the evening of December 27, he stated that he accepted the decision of the Patriarch and the Synod “with humility and gratitude.” And packs containers for moving to the hospitable Czech Republic.

In this regard, it is worth taking a closer look at the parish in Karlovy Vary, which has a reputation among journalists as a “legal residency” under the church roof.

Slavic wardrobe with domes

By the middle of the 19th century, Karlovy Vary (at that time called Carlsbad in German) became a favorite place for spa treatment of the Russian aristocracy. By the end of the century, to satisfy the spiritual needs of vacationers, a luxurious church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in the pseudo-Russian style was built in the city center. After 1918, bishops who emigrated from Russia began to settle in the parish house, and the church was under the omophorion of Metropolitan Eulogius (Georgievsky) of Paris. In 1945, it naturally came under the control of the Moscow Patriarchate, which in 1951 established a puppet autocephalous church on the territory of Czechoslovakia. But in 1979, she “returned” the temple to the Russian Orthodox Church - to create an official representation of the Moscow Patriarchate there.

In late Soviet times, the rector of the temple was Bishop Vladimir (Ikim), who later became the Metropolitan of Omsk (Karlovy Vary and Omsk are sister cities).

In the 2000s, the “new Russian aristocracy” returned to the Czech resort - according to local cadastre data, it owns approximately half of all real estate in the city.

In the 2010s, a grandiose restoration of the temple was carried out with the participation of large Russian companies. The chairman of the board of trustees of the parish in Karlovy Vary is the co-owner of several mining companies, the retired “coal oligarch” Georgy Krasnyansky.

As the commission of the Supreme Council of Russia to investigate the causes and circumstances of the State Emergency Committee established in 1992, the chairmen of the Department of External Church Relations (Connections) of the Moscow Patriarchate (DECR MP) and their deputies were KGB agents in Soviet times. They visited Western countries quite freely and often, something that even the party nomenklatura of that time could only dream of. Bishop Vladimir (Ikim), being deputy chairman of the DECR MP, also belonged to this circle.

But the traditions did not stop with the collapse of the USSR; more precisely, they were restored in the 2000s.

Since 2006, the rector of the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Karlovy Vary has been Archpriest Nikolai Lischenyuk, whom the Czech authorities declared persona non grata in August of this year due to suspicions of activities that threaten the state and are incompatible with the status of a foreign clergyman. As is now customary in Russia, Fr. Nicholas was immediately awarded at home

- appointed to the positions of deputy chairman of the DECR MP and rector of the Church of “Joy of All Who Sorrow” on Ordynka - the same one where Metropolitan Hilarion served before his “expulsion from Moscow to Budapest” in June 2022.

Unlike Lishchenyuk, who only has a Russian passport, Hilarion is a full-fledged EU citizen; it is not easy to deport him to his homeland. He received Hungarian citizenship - bypassing many procedures provided for by Hungarian law - in September 2022. The extraordinary process was launched after Hilarion’s meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. They have known each other for a long time - they studied at Pembroke College in Oxford in the 1990s and belong to an informal fraternity of its alumni.

By the way, it was Hungary that three times sought the exclusion of Patriarch Kirill from the EU sanctions lists (the last time in December of this year), and Metropolitan Hilarion officially thanked Orban for this “good deed.”

Although the patriarch is under sanctions from eight states, non-inclusion in the EU list allows him to control assets in the jurisdictions of other states - for example, in Hungary or Switzerland.

The career of Archpriest Nikolai Lishchenyuk has always been connected with the “church-diplomatic” service. In the 1990s, he completed graduate school at the DECR MP, from 2000 he served in the representative office of the Alexandria Patriarchate in Moscow, and from 2001 - at the Russian embassy in Prague.

Of course, Metropolitan Hilarion is a higher-flying bird. He is personally acquainted and has met with Pope Francis several times - for example, last year in Budapest, the pope kissed the panagia (breast icon of the Mother of God) of Hilarion and assured him of his support. By the way, cell attendant Georgy Suzuki was also present at that meeting. Obviously, Hilarion will continue his mission in the Czech Republic, establishing connections with local religious and political leaders.

Karlovy Vary is the center of elite life, “water” after all, an all-European resort... And this is not a puritanical city at all - even against the backdrop of the entire Czech Republic, which attracts, among others, representatives of the very industry in which Hilarion now suspects his former cell attendant of involvement. Serious money is spent here, serious rich and influential people meet, who are given every opportunity for a good rest and who are watched with interest by a sufficient number of professionals.

So it is possible that

Over time, the exiled hierarch will have new opportunities to return to his usual way of life. Well, receive new awards for your service to the Motherland in yet another enemy territory.

We continue to follow the successes of this outstanding “theologian, patrolologist, church historian, composer and teacher, Doctor of Philosophy, Doctor of Theology” (as Wikipedia characterizes him), honorary professor of a dozen universities and academies, Putin’s order bearer and laureate of the State Prize of the Russian Federation.