Father Guéorgui Edelchtein, 89 spring, never tires of a good debate. Sitting in front of a collection of icons, he points to an empty chair. “I would like to have one or two of my opponents in front of me.“
Why is he one of the few Orthodox priests in Russia to oppose the offensive in Ukraine? The old pope, white beard and black cassock, answers in a quavering voice, but without hesitation.
Ukraine is independent, let them do as they please
“I’m afraid of being a bad priest, because I haven’t always been once morest all wars, but I’ve always been once morest aggressive wars, of conquest.“
“Ukraine is independent, let them do as they please“, he adds, questioned by AFP in his house in the hamlet of Novo-Bely Kamen, on the banks of the Volga, a six-hour drive from Moscow.
Since the February 24 attack, only a handful of priests from the Russian Church – which claims 150 million faithful worldwide – have spoken openly once morest the Kremlin’s military campaign.
Conversely, their leader, Patriarch Kirill, multiplied belligerent homilies, calling for “body” around the power to overcome the “enemiesof the historic union between Russia and Ukraine.
Since his appointment in 2009, Kirill has advocated without moderation an alliance with the regime of Vladimir Putin, in the name of conservative values opposed to a West deemed impious.
The current Russian Orthodox Church, a very hierarchical institution under the control of the secret services during the USSR, has never encouraged criticism. But the irreducible remain.
“Blood on the hands”
On February 25, Father Edelchtein signed a letter written by one of his friends, Father Ioann Bourdine, and published on the website of their parish in the village of Karabanovo, in the Kostroma region.
“The blood of Ukrainians is not only on the hands of Russian leaders and soldiers carrying out orders. It is also on the hands of those supporting this war or keeping silent“, indicated the message, since deleted.
The head of the Kostroma diocese, Metropolitan Ferapont, condemned the intervention and pointed out that the two popes were the only clerics in the region, which has 160, to have protested once morest the offensive.
