In the New York Times, Sophia Kishkovsky files a report<\/a> on Patriarch Kirill’s recent youth rallies in Moscow and St. Petersburg where he struck both nationalist and highly personal tones.<\/p>\n

Patriarch Kirill also did not mention America, but said immoral economies are doomed to collapse. \u201cAn economic system built only on the striving for profit, on indifference to the fate of people, on disregard for moral norms, is deprived of stability and can collapse at any moment, burying the fate of people under its rubble,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Here in St. Petersburg, Patriarch Kirill struck a much more personal tone. He made a generous reference to Martin Luther King Jr. \u2014 whom Kirill said he met in 1968 \u2014 and his \u201cI Have a Dream\u201d speech, and stressed the importance of true love and of striving for ideals.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wasn\u2019t a dreamer, he was a brilliant politician, orator, and Christian pastor,\u201d Patriarch Kirill said of Dr. King, addressing some 8,000 students. \u201cBut he had a dream, and this dream led to very concrete achievements.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Some analysts compliment the patriarch for his charisma:<\/p>\n

To some Russian observers, Patriarch Kirill has taken a page from Pope John Paul II, who was often regarded with suspicion by Russian church men.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is copying John Paul II, who had charisma,\u201d said Anatoly Krasikov, director of the Center for Religious and Social Studies of the Institute of Europe in Moscow and formerly a journalist on Vatican affairs for the state-run Itar-Tass news agency. \u201cKirill is the only Orthodox figure here who has that gift.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Moscow and St. Petersburg, aspects of Patriarch Kirill\u2019s rallies suggested at least an element of coercion. The stiffer Moscow gathering evoked meetings of the Kremlin youth movement, Nashi (Ours), while in St. Petersburg students said they had been encouraged, though not forced, to attend by their colleges, which had informed them of the meeting anywhere from two weeks to hours before the event. Two young women were seen outside meeting their dean, who was distributing tickets. While they had been asked to attend, they considered it an honor.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read “New Orthodox Patriarch Pulls No Punches” here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the New York Times, Sophia Kishkovsky files a report on Patriarch Kirill’s recent youth rallies in Moscow and St. Petersburg where he struck both nationalist and highly personal tones. Patriarch Kirill also did not mention America, but said immoral economies are doomed to collapse. \u201cAn economic system built only on the striving for profit, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1784],"tags":[6,778,779,204,780,375,164,160,296,466,41,100],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2497"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2497"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2595,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2497\/revisions\/2595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}