This is something I’ve been wondering about… While I appreciated hearing a ROCOR bishop at least saying the war was bad, the elephant in the room is that these ROCOR hierarchs often stop short of actually condemning those aspects of their church that are culpable…

I find it very ironic that the ROC/ROCOR have made such claims to holiness in recent decades on the shoulders of those martyred during the Soviet era. Yet, when they are faced with a similar choice to collude with the authorities or stand for what is right, they seem to completely lack the moral fortitude. This is their hour and they can’t rise to the occasion. This renders the martyrs nothing more than some kind of nationalistic fairy tale to legitimize spiritual authority and not what they should be: a call to repentance