Russian Orthodox Church demotes scandal-prone former bishop

The Russian Orthodox Church’s supreme administrative body has decided to remove the scandal-prone head of its Budapest and Hungarian Diocese, the church’s Holy Synod announced on Friday.

Grigory Alfeyev, who took the religious name Metropolitan Hilarion, was temporarily suspended by the body in July following an investigation by Novaya Gazeta Europe that uncovered evidence of misconduct in both his financial and personal affairs.

As the head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department of External Church Relations since 2009, Hilarion had been touted as a possible successor to Patriarch Kirill, the current head of the church, until he was suddenly removed from the post in 2022 and appointed head of one of the church’s smallest dioceses in Hungary.

In explaining the decision, the Holy Synod referred to “the incompatibility of his relations with his entourage and the incompatibility of his life with the image of that of a monk and clergyman”.

In July, George Suzuki, a Russian-Japanese student of Orthodoxy appointed to be Hilarion’s cell-attendant in Budapest, made allegations of sexual misconduct against him.

In October, Novaya Gazeta Europe revealed that Hilarion owned prime waterfront real estate in France, valued at close to €500,000, where Suzuki said the first instance of alleged sexual misconduct took place. Alfeyev was also revealed to own an estate near Budapest, a penthouse in the Spanish city of Alicante as well as additional real estate in Moscow, despite his modest earnings as a church official.

Alfeyev, who denied the allegations against him and accused Suzuki of attempting to blackmail him, told Novaya Europe that he had been able to purchase expensive property and fund a less-than-monastic lifestyle from “royalties” he received for his books and films.

Hilarion is now to be transferred to the Church of St. Peter and Paul in the city of Karlovy Vary in Czechia, where he will serve as the senior priest.