Metropolitan Kirill refutes libel upon the Church

METROPOLITAN KIRILL REFUTES LIBEL UPON THE CHURCH

The Argumenty i farty weekly issue No. 25 which came out on June 21, 2000, carried a letter to the editor by Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate.

Below is the full text of the letter.

Mr. V. A. Starkov
Editor-in-Chief
Argumenty i fakty Weekly

Dear Vladislav Andreyevich,

The Argumenty i fakty weekly issue No. 17, which came out on the eve of Easter, carried an article by Tatyana Korostikova entitled «The Church — is it rich or poor?» containing information which does not correspond to the facts.

Such fabrications concerning the Russian Orthodox Church and myself were repeatedly published earlier by such editions as Moskovsky komsomolets and Rus pravoslavnaya, a supplement to Sovetskaya Rossia. However, I did not consider it possible for me to respond to this slanderous campaign, taking into account the fact the anti-Church activity of the above-mentioned editions was resolutely condemned by the Holy Synod of our Church.

As far as your weekly is concerned, worthwhile materials occur on its pages, devoted to the questions of Christian faith and life of the Church. I myself happened to give an interview to Argumenty i fakty journalists.

It is respect for the readers of this edition and concern that it should give adequate information about the life of the Church that compel me to declare that the author of the above-mentioned article was either misled or relied on unconfirmed information.

Without going into the reasons for publishing this article, I believe it to be my pastoral and civic duty to state that what is written in it does not correspond to reality. I will not expound again the position of the Russian Orthodox Church on the trade in excisable goods, since I have explained it verbally and in writing in the mass media on many occasions.

I will simply state the facts: the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, of which I am head, does not own any diamond cutting works nor is it involved in any activities connected with diamonds or any other precious stones; neither DECR nor any other church related organization owns either independently or on shares any BMW assembling works in Kaliningrad; no Region private company nor any other firm for sea fishery has ever existed at the DECR; the Free People’s Television is not a joint property of the DECR and foreign partners; and no sponsor fund-raising, mentioned in the article by T. Kostikova, has ever taken place.

I confirm that the village cheese-making factory does exist in the diocese of Ryazan and does belong to the Church, which is fully consistent with the tradition of church economic activity.

I count on the publication of this information in the Argumenty i fakty weekly. I hope that this publication will help the readers to have an objective idea of the material condition and economic activity of the Russian Orthodox Church in general and the DECR in particular.

Respectfully,

Kirill
Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad
Chairman Department for External Church Relations
Moscow Patriarchate.