Skandal erupts-Met Hilarion[Alfeyev]

[Barbara]

A story can be found on NFTU, so I won't repeat the unpleasant details of the July 2024 "skandal" around the behavior of the MP's Met Hilarion, the former very powerful figure.

I did, however, find this aerial view of Vacduka Castle outside Budapest which he purchased for 2.15 million euros, in case anybody is interested to see what the building actually is :



Apparently, Met Hilarion got a good deal, as the property had been on the market for 4 million euros. With a swimming pool, space for parking six vehicles, it is grand, but hardly on the level of 19th century Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz-Josef's royal palace at Godollo, an hour outside Budapest :




But neither does it look like what Met Hilarion told the Russian media outlet Novaya Gazeta Europe, which broke the story.
The scandal-beseiged hierarch insisted he bought the castle intending to set up a monastery in the 14-room mansion. He also asserted that the purchase price came from sales of his - I guess popular ? - books.
But somehow that information does not square with an alleged statement he made : that he had actually run out of money once the real estate deal closed. How, then, would he pay for a monastery, even a small one, on the grounds of Vacduka [pictured below] ?

[Barbara]

On the other side of the coin are the priests of the MP's Hungarian Diocese. These protested vehemently as described here.
Also, the "Spy Connection" is stated here as a hypothesis for Met Hilarion [Alfeyev]'s sudden transfer to the see of Budapest.
Finally, evidence against the charge of Met Hilarion's being a homosexual is advanced at the end of the article :

"HUNGARIAN Orthodox clergy have defended Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Budapest and Hungary, after he was accused of... misconduct and a hedonistic lifestyle.

Allegations published in Novaya Gazeta Europe were made against Metropolitan Hilarion by Georgy Suzuki, a 20-year-old Japanese-Russian subdeacon who had previously been close to the bishop.

A statement signed by 11 priests in Budapest diocese said: “We have known Metropolitan Hilarion for many years — it has been obvious that here among us is a bishop with the single goal of serving God’s glory.

“Silence is criminal, especially for priests appointed by God to bear witness to the truth and shut the mouths of madmen. . . Having read his testimony, which causes nothing but disgust, we see that this criminal has accomplices who seek to discredit our saint.”

The priests said that life in the Hungarian diocese, which has only a dozen parishes, had “qualitatively improved” in the two years since Metropolitan Hilarion had been in post. They said that the latest “dirty slanderous campaign” should be set against “the authority of a widely known hierarch, theologian, and good shepherd with a multi-million flock of spiritual children”.

Metropolitan Hilarion, who is now 57, was once the second-ranking official in the Russian Orthodox Church. He was chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate from 2009, and widely seen as a likely successor to Patriarch Kirill. But, in June 2022, he was appointed Metropolitan of Hungary, four months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, thereby losing his permanent place on the governing Holy Synod.

The Metropolitan was quoted by the TASS news agency as telling his Moscow congregation that he had not “fitted with” the “current socio-political situation”.

Some media speculated, however, that his transfer had been co-ordinated with Russian intelligence to provide the Moscow Patriarchate with a base for influencing Western governments and Churches, using premier Viktor Orbán’s sympathetic government, and to enable a substantial expansion of Russian embassy staff.

In a detailed report on 5 July, Novaya Gazeta Europa said that Metropolitan Hilarion had been given a Hungarian passport soon after arriving in Budapest, enabling him to travel freely, protected from international sanctions.

The paper said that the Metropolitan had been accused of... harassment by Mr Suzuki, who had fled to Japan in January, taking with him cash and valuables from Metropolitan Hilarion’s residence, as well as photographs, videos, and recordings of the Metropolitan’s yachting and skiing trips and parties for Russian oligarchs and senior Hungarian officials.

The paper reported Metropolitan Hilarion’s private criticisms of Patriarch Kirill for misusing funds on “projects that interest him personally”, and his subsequent correspondence with Mr Suzuki’s mother, offering a financial settlement as “a testimony of sincere regret for all mistakes made”.

Interviewed last week by Russia’s RIA Novosti agency, Metropolitan Hilarion rejected the accusations. He said that he would challenge Suzuki’s claims in court; he went on to say that an investigation was under way against the subdeacon’s mother for attempting to extort money from him.

In a follow-up article at the weekend, Novaya Gazeta Europe said that Metropolitan Hilarion had now returned to Moscow for “urgent consultations” about the accusations.

The Metropolitan has backed the banning of LGBT groups in Russia and was a leading critic of the Pope’s pre-Christmas declaration, Fiducia Supplicans, which allows RC priests to bless same-sex couples (News, 22/29 December 2023)."

Source : Church Times, a Catholic publication [I didn't get the exact link but can find later]

[Barbara]

"The Holy Synod of the Moscow Patriarchate resolved yesterday to temporarily suspend His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Budapest while a commission “studies the situation in the Diocese of Budapest and Hungary.”

In the meantime, the diocese will be administered by His Eminence Metropolitan Nestor of Korsun and Western Europe, reports Patriarchia.ru.

Such measures are typical when accusations against a cleric are being investigated and do not necessarily indicate that the ecclesiastical authorities believe the cleric to be guilty.

Met. Hilarion has also been relieved of his posts as chairman of the Synodal Biblical and Theological Commission and chairman of the Inter-Council Presence on Theology and Theological Education."

Synod temporarily suspends Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) while commission investigates accusations

[Barbara]

Novaya Gazeta must be quite liberal, one can see from their language and reporting. In a newer article, the paper gloats about the fall of a conservative hierarch who stood up against homosexuals, etc.
So we can not trust that paper !

Nonetheless, it seems Met Hilarion was taking excursions in regular attire and generally living it up from the set of pictures posted by the paper :

[Barbara]

This matter was seized upon by the Atlantic Council to push for Met Hilarion [Alfeyev]'s innocence.

The author, a Swede named Elisabeth Braw, leaps all over this sensational story to realign it as a Kremlin plot to nail a popular MP Metropolitan due to his expressed negative opinion about the Ukraine war.
That really makes no sense at all. The remarks made by Met Hilarion were from awhile ago. Surely the Kremlin has not been devising this revenge all this time since Met Hilarion's comments appeared !

Then, the author claims that Pope Francis' meeting with Met Hilarion when the former was visiting Hungary in 2022 enraged the Kremlin so much that a secret agent was dispensed to Budapest to entrap the MP prelate.

Because it's interesting to read a view so opposite to all the previous ones out there, I am posting this section of her article.

The exaggeration is so obvious that it reveals how much this scandal is being capitalized upon to fit into the anti-Russian agenda of American think tanks.

Not surprisingly, the Atlantic Council is funded by NATO.
And, before working there, the author worked at the ultra-neo-con American Enterprise Institute.

"Much like Soviet dissidents sent into internal exile, Hilarion blossomed where he was planted. He diligently served his dozen parishes and became well-liked among the clergy and the faithful. When Pope Francis made a pastoral visit to Hungary’s Roman Catholic community in the summer of 2022, he made a point of meeting with Hilarion: a clear papal rebuke of Putin.

This was too much for the Kremlin. It was time for a defamation campaign, one even more vicious than the one that had silenced Kirill.

This arrived in the form of Georgy Suzuki, a 20-year-old Japanese-Russian cleric-in-training. He briefly worked in Hilarion’s office, and soon reported that the bishop had engaged in sexual harassment and embezzled money. Suzuki allegedly left for Japan in January this year, taking with him a considerable trove of what were described as Hilarion’s belongings.

These, the Russian news outlet Novaya Gazeta Europe reported, allegedly included cash and valuables from Metropolitan Hilarion’s residence as well as pictures, videos, and recordings showing Hilarion vacationing with Russian oligarchs and Hungarian officials. Suzuki’s trove from Hilarion’s home is also said to have included expensive watches. This was an echo of the regime’s earlier claims against Kirill, when the Kremlin alleged that he, too, owned expensive watches. The story further involved Suzuki’s mother, whom Hilarion reportedly contacted with an offer of money that was “a testimony of sincere regret for all mistakes made.”

Like the smear campaigns against Soviet dissidents, the campaign against Hilarion is fishy. Suzuki appeared out of nowhere to serve with Hilarion in the small and remote diocese of Hungary and appears to have wasted no time gaining the bishop’s confidence. He quickly made an exit, Hilarion’s belongings and firing off streams of salacious allegations.

The priests in Hungary’s Russian Orthodox Church are certain of Hilarion’s innocence and issued a fiercely worded defense of their leader: “We have known Metropolitan Hilarion for many years — it has been obvious that here among us is a bishop with the single goal of serving God’s glory,” a large group of them wrote in a statement, adding that “silence is criminal, especially for priests appointed by God to bear witness to the truth and shut the mouths of madmen. . . Having read [Suzuki’s] testimony, which causes nothing but disgust, we see that this criminal has accomplices who seek to discredit our saint.”

The shaming of Hilarion meanwhile continues apace. He is now reportedly back in Russia: recalled for “consultations” with Kirill and where he will no doubt be questioned about Suzuki’s claims that he criticized the Patriarch while in Hungary. Hilarion had little choice but to return — clerics are not permitted to defy superiors’ orders and a refusal would merely have added to the charges against him. One shudders to contemplate the treatment he’s likely to be receiving at the hands of Kirill and his Kremlin masters.

Indeed, Hilarion’s fate sends a chilling message to Russians who might still have the courage to criticize the Ukraine war, if only discreetly: the authorities will come for you.

Elisabeth Braw is a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council."

Putin Rids Russia of a Troublesome Priest

[Barbara]

I couldn't resist adding a little more to show what a biased article this is.

First of all, Pope Francis' request to meet Met Hilarion was surely not at all an anti-Putin gesture. Met Hilarion had frequently visited the Vatican in the time of Francis' predecessor Benedict. The two were on good terms, so why would Pope Francis not want to get to know this famous figure who was reputed to be comparatively pro-Catholic ?

Whatever the precise reason, it was not an insult leveled at the Kremlin.

The author says "one shudders to contemplate the treatment he is likely to be receiving at the hands of Kirill and his Kremlin masters".

This is absurd ! While nothing has been heard since Met Hilarion's recall, the likelihood of the latter being sent to a gulag camp is about nil. That's of course what Elisabeth Braw wants her readers to infer from that ominous sentence.

If one multiplies this one article by a gigantic number, one can clearly see the heaviest propaganda effort that went into persuading the world of the US and NATO's pro-Ukraine, anti-Russia stance.

Here is a clear example by this same propagandist which appeared in The Times, UK, May 2022 :

Let’s all chip in and buy weapons for Ukraine

Elisabeth Braw
Monday May 30 2022, The Times

A Lithuanian television personality has just crowdfunded an armed drone for Ukraine. Czechs have raised more than €50 million for arms to send to Kyiv. Passing the military hat is the new Band Aid, and that’s a good thing.

“Our time has come,” the Lithuanian TV anchor Andrius Tapinas wrote in a Facebook appeal last week, asking his compatriots to chip in for the Bayraktar drone from Turkey. Three days later they had donated the €5 million needed.

Tapinas’s initiative follows the Czech crowdfunding appeal thought up by Tomas Kopecny, the country’s deputy minister of defence in charge of industrial co-operation. More than 120,000 Czechs have already given more than €50 million. Kopecny’s office has co-ordinated several dozen shipments of weapons, including howitzers and multi-launch rocket systems bought with the funds.

And this month the Eurovision Song Contest winners, Kalush Orchestra, from Ukraine, auctioned off their trophy and their singer’s signature pink hat, donating the £1 million proceeds to the Prytula Foundation, which raises money for Ukrainian military supplies.

Germans are already saying that they ought to organise similar crowdfunding. And imagine the potential in America. Or in the UK. The Ministry of Defence might like to set up a hotline for Britons eager to help Ukraine’s brave soldiers defend democracy.

...Governments and banks would also need to monitor fundraising drives to ensure they don’t involve trafficked weapons or organised crime — or sabotage foreign policy. Otherwise, western governments should embrace the novel arms deliveries. Citizens wishing to help defend democracy are to be saluted.

Elisabeth Braw is senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute

[Barbara]

In the original piece on Met Hilarion, i see only 2 redeeming points. One is the title, which is taken from Henry II Plantagenet's angry words on Christmas Day 1170, "Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest ?"
By itself that last term was an insult, as the "priest" to whom the English King referred was the then-Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket



The other is the observation that Met Hilarion's accuser Gregory Suzuki appeared out of nowhere. That does sound accurate, as it was unclear in all the versions of the story which have circulated how this man suddenly arrived in -- Hungary ? Which nation is an Orthodox backwater.

Certainly any enterprising young man intent on a career in the MP would seek his Orthodox fortune in Russia, not Central Europe.