Moscow, December 30, 2024
Photo: pravoslavie.fm
His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev), head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations and permanent member of the Holy Synod from 2009 to 2022, has been retired as a ruling hierarch.
He has been assigned to serve at the Russian Orthodox representation Church of Sts. Peter and Paul in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic, reports Patriarchia.ru.
In July, accusations against Met. Hilarion by his former assistant George Suzuki were published by Novaya Gazeta Evropa. He accused the hierarch of living a luxurious lifestyle, with a number of properties in Europe, and inappropriate physical contact (though he specified there was never any sexual contact).
At the same time, Suzuki, when he left Hungary, where Met. Hilarion had been serving since June 2022, stole a watch and money totaling more than $32,000. According to the hierarch, Suzuki’s grandmother then tried to blackmail him for $420,000.
In late July, the Holy Synod temporarily suspended Met. Hilarion while a commission investigated the accusations. According to one expert analysis, the audio and video evidence against him was fabricated.
And on Friday, the Synod resolved to retire Met. Hilarion as a ruling hierarch and to send him to the church in the Czech Republic, whose previous rector was evicted from the country in August of this year.
The hierarchs of the Synod also requested that His Holiness Patriarch Kirill “draw Met. Hilarion’s attention to the inconsistency between the nature of his relationships with his inner circle and his lifestyle with the conduct expected of a monk and clergyman.”
The Synod thus ended the work of the commission “studying the state of affairs in the Budapest-Hungary Diocese,” though it can be resumed if new information is received.
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