Patriarch Alexy II calls for sympathy for ‘Penza Recluses’
0 Comments Published by georgy on Monday, April 28 at 1:19 PM.
Moscow, April 26, Interfax - Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia has called for sympathy towards the members of a religious sect awaiting doomsday in seclusion in a cave in the Penza region."You need to treat such people with Christian love and sympathy. Expressing their protest, people want to be heard," Alexy II said in an interview published in the Saturday issue of Rossiiskaya Gazeta.One of the reasons of the Penza recluses' protest was their refusal to be assigned the Tax Identification Number and be registered in an electronic form with government agencies. However, Alexy said he did not see reason to criticize the Church for its indifference to such concerns spread among some of Orthodox Christians."Despite the seeming absurdity of resistance to the attributes of modern life, it should be admitted that collecting and storing information about people this way is really dangerous. This could lead to total control over them," he said.The Church tries to inform the authorities about ordinary people's questions and concerns and, as a rule, such petitions "are not left unanswered," he said.The best way to deprive false teachers of their influence is to teach people the true, peaceful, and wise religious tradition from childhood, he said.The patriarch mentioned the legacy of the Communist rule and problems of the transition period among the reasons that led to the situation surrounding the Penza recluses."Our people have survived a lot. Wars, revolutions, and various shocks that took place in last century produce instability, uncertainty about tomorrow, and mistrust in the authorities. Such attitudes [the expectation of doomsday] are especially common in transition periods. This is sometimes combined with various phobias, absolute obedience to dubious teachers, and unhealthy mistrust in all the others," he said."Poor literacy and illiteracy in religious affairs, indifference and coldness of the public, including the clergy - all this could push an individual toward an unsanctioned retreat to a cave," he said.
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