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21 February 2022, 14:08Russian Church blames the Alexandrian Patriarchate for eliminating indigenous population of Africa
Moscow, February 21, Interfax - The Russian Orthodox Church blames the Alexandrian Patriarchate in repressions against its former parishioners from indigenous Africans.
"I've seen a lot of things in my life and experienced more than one war, I don't want to use the word "genocide" in the absence of hostilities, but I don't remember such humiliation of the indigenous population," patriarchal exarch of Africa Metropolitan Leonid of Klin told Interfax.
Many things that missionaries of Moscow Patriarchate face there, such as social, humanitarian, educational programs, not only doesn't exist, he said. But the Alexandrians aggravate the situation further by depriving the clergy of their homes, expelling them from the homes of the clergy who have transferred to Russians, expelling children from school, depriving them of education, and shutting off water somewhere in the parishes.
He tried to explain the fact why African Orthodox believers so acutely perceive the fact that their spiritual leader agreed with the deepening of the schism in Ukraine, and began to en masse to Russian Church. "I can say that a lot of negativity has accumulated here over the decades - both the racism of Greek bishops towards their clergy from the local population, and the elementary lack of care for parishioners," the metropolitan said.
According to statistics, he cited, only a few black bishops have been ordained recently in the Alexandrian Patriarchate, and this happened for the first time in the last few decades.
Metropolitan was also struck by the lack of conditions for Orthodox life, which we are used to seeing in Russia, for example. "In some countries, people are completely abandoned. Bishops visit them a couple of times a year, and mostly they are, as a rule, in their homeland, Greece," he said.
As reported, more than a hundred clerics of the Patriarchate of Alexandria, which don't agree with the creation of non-canonical "Orthodox Church of Ukraine" (OCU), declared their desire to move together with the flock to the Moscow Patriarchate. At the end of December, they were admitted to the Russian Orthodox Church, whose Synod established its exarchate in Africa, which caused indignation on the part of the Greek bishops who recognized the OCU. Now there are already more than 160 clerics transferred to Russian Church from more than 12 countries.
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