Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church: Qualification of the actions of the schism can only belong to the church courts

Metropolitan Pavel of Krutitsy and Kolomna, head of the Moscow Patriarchy’s Office for Dioceses in the Near Abroad, in an interview with Patriarchy.ru, answered, in particular, the question about the qualification of the term “schism”.

“If we talk about the ecclesiastical legal qualification of certain actions as a schism, entailing certain ecclesiastical legal consequences, then such qualification can only belong to ecclesiastical courts, up to the Bishops’ Council,” the hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church emphasized.

Therefore, according to the bishop, at this stage the Orthodox of the countries of the near abroad, in particular Latvia, “have no reason to refrain from visiting churches and participating in the sacraments.”