PATRIARCH ALEKSII II URGES INTERACTION

BETWEEN HIS CLERGY & THE DIPLOMATIC

SERVICES

 

ACCORDING to an Interfax posting on 9th April, His Holiness Patriarch Aleksii II of Moscow and All Russia “has called for mutual support between Russian diplomats posted abroad and priests serving in Russian Orthodox parishes outside Russia.” Quoting the Patriarch, the news release says: “‘It is my desire that clergy in the countries where [Diplomatic Academy] students will be posted should help our diplomats and share their attitudes,’ [emphasis ours -ed.]  Patriarch told reporters Wednesday after meeting in Moscow with Diplomatic Academy students.  In turn, Russian Orthodox Church priests abroad need ‘diplomatic support,’ he said.  Church and state ‘should not erect a wall between them but should interact for the good of our people, including in the international relations sphere,’ Alexy II said.”  Albeit that the present Russian state is not an avowedly and militantly atheistic regime, it is also not an Orthodox Christian one, and this counsel, given by the Patriarch, appears to be a manifestation of the continued Sergianist attitude of his church administration.

 

 

 

PURPORTED ROYAL RELICS FOUND

 

MIKE ECKEL, an Associated Press Writer, reported on 30th April, that remains believed to be those of the Holy New Martyrs the Tsarevich Alexis and his sister Maria, have been recovered.  Eckel’s report states that an official says “DNA tests have solved the mystery by identifying bone shards found in a forest as those of Alexei and his sister, Grand Duchess Maria.” However, the remains unearthed in 1991 and later reburied in St. Petersburg, which were claimed to be those of the other members of the martyred Imperial Family, have not been accepted by all as genuine.  It is claimed that the DNA tests done of them were flawed.  And so some doubt as to the authenticity of the present remains must remain.  The report continues: “Researchers unearthed the [present] bone shards last summer in a forest near Yekaterinburg, where the royal family was killed, and enlisted Russian and U.S. laboratories to conduct DNA tests.  Eduard Rossel, governor of the region 900 miles east of Moscow, said tests done by a U.S. laboratory had identified the shards as those of Alexei and Maria. ‘This has confirmed that indeed it is the children,’ he said. ‘We have now found the entire family.’ ‘The main genetic laboratory in the United States has concluded its work with a full confirmation of our own laboratories’ work,’ Rossel said.  He did not specify the laboratory, but a genetic research team working at the University of Massachusetts Medical School has been involved in the process.  Evgeny Rogaev, who headed the team that tested the remains in Moscow and at the medical school in Worcester, Mass., was called into the case by the Russian Federation Prosecutor’s Office.…  ‘The most difficult work is done and we have delivered to them our expert analysis, but we are still working,’ he said. ‘Scientifically, we want to make the most complete investigation possible.’  The test results were based on analysis of mitochondrial DNA, the genetic material passed down only from mothers to children.  That DNA is more stable than nuclear DNA — the material inherited from the father’s side — especially when remains are badly damaged.  In this case, the bone fragments were so shattered and burned that Rogaev’s team first had to determine whether enough uncontaminated genetic material still existed for testing.  The delicate work proved that, indeed, useful DNA could be extracted from a very small amount of the material — a critical fact, since they wanted to preserve as much of the bone fragments as possible out of respect for the victims.  The researchers also compared DNA from the remains with those of Empress Alexandra, who was a granddaughter of Britain’s Queen Victoria and a distant relative of Prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II.  With the mitochondrial analysis completed, the team is working on the nuclear DNA analysis and comparing the samples to paternal relatives of the czar’s family.  That information, along with conclusions already delivered to the Russian prosecutors, eventually will be submitted to a professional journal for peer review and publication.  It was unclear if the Russian Orthodox Church will recognize them as genuine. The church’s press service said no one could comment on Wednesday’s announcement.…  ‘They say that as long as the last soldier remains unburied, the war continues,’ [German] Lukyanov, [a lawyer for royal descendants] told AP. ‘So long as the last victim of Bolshevik terror and the Communist regime remains unrehabilitiated, the repression will continue.’”

 

 

 

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