Moscow, Russia - Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, deputy head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, expressed his indignation at a recent publication in ‘The Times’ about assassination of the abbot of the Davydova Pustyn and stated that he was not going to associate with the newspaper representatives or offer his hand to people who work there.
‘The material published on July 28 about the assassination of Archimandrite German exhausted my patience. The name of the assassinated priest is discredited without any proof, on the basis of rumours. Plus ridiculous accusations of the Church as a whole are brought to light, up to the long ago refuted talks of the Church receiving oil from Saddam Hussein’, - Rev. Vsevolod said in his talk with the journalists on Thursday.
He expressed his bewilderment with ‘the newspaper, which considers itself respectable, but took the liberty of free-and-easy and irresponsible tone that speaks for the lack of inner culture and ethics’. He also noted that this edition ‘never ventured such an unceremonious tone towards American administration, its own government or religious organizations of Western countries’.
The Orthodox priest asked: ‘Do they consider us the second-rate people? Do they think that they can pour forth serious accusations on the basis of conjectures and perfunctory appraisal?’