As reported, on December 20, 2024, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, made a report at a meeting of the clergy of the Moscow Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, in which he paid considerable attention to the persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The First Hierarch emphasized the criminal cases against the UOC bishops, the continuous seizures of churches, and the aggressive policy of the Ukrainian government towards the canonical Church. His Holiness regretted that the leaders of European countries did not react to the unprecedented persecution of the Church in Ukraine.
The Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church retired Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev)
On December 27, 2024, the final meeting of this year’s Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church was held. One of the decisions of the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church was to retire Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Budapest and Hungary and relieve him of all his posts. The reason for this decision, according to the Synod, was “the inconsistency of the nature of his relations with his closest circle and his life image of a monk and a clergyman.” This is reported by the official website of the ROC.
“1. To ask the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, in accordance with the right granted to him by the Statute of the Russian Orthodox Church (“exercising his canonical authority, the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia gives fraternal advice to bishops <…> regarding their personal lives”, Statute IV.7.h), – to draw the attention of Metropolitan Hilarion to the inconsistency of the nature of his relations with his immediate environment and his life with the image of a monk and clergyman.
2. To release His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion from the administration of the Eparchy of Budapest-Hungary and to retire him.
3. To entrust the temporary administration of the Budapest-Hungarian diocese to His Eminence Metropolitan Mark of Ryazan and Mikhailovsky.
4. Metropolitan Hilarion is to be assigned the place of ministry in the Church of the Holy First-Faithful Apostles Peter and Paul in Karlovy Vary.
5. To complete the work of the Commission to study the situation in the Budapest-Hungarian diocese and to ask His Holiness the Patriarch, in the case of receipt in the Moscow Patriarchate of new information about the circumstances of the case, to resume the work of the Commission or otherwise determine the order of study of this information,“ – said in the decision of the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church.
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