No ironizing Patriarch, awarded as a geographer

A poem ironizes on a recognition - rather unique - awarded by the Minister of Defence and not by the Geographical Society raises a protest Authority for complaints against the press.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - The Authority for complaints against the press (an independent institute, created in Russia in 2005 by the organs of information, inspired by Putin), is considering an appeal filed last March 10 concerning the publication of some verses composed by the poet Dmitry Bykov, dedicated to the Moscow Patriarch Kirill (Gundjaev).

The text was published by the magazine "Sobesednik" ( "The Contact") last August, after the Patriarch was conferred with the title of member of the prestigious Russian Geographical Society by the Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shojgu.

Such recognition, according to the reasoning set out by the Minister, was intended to reward the participation of Kirill, in his youth, in different geological research expeditions, and in general his passion for geography and history, along with the discoveries made also by members of the Ortodox church. During the ceremony, the Patriarch was gifted some photographs, including one taken by the same minister, winner of the contest "The most beautiful country", organized by the Geographical Society.

As stated by the chief editor of "Sobesednik" Yuri Pilipenko, the fact aroused some curiosity and Bykov was approached to compose some verses for a satirical publication. In the poem, the poet portrays the Patriarch receiving a messenger of the spirit in the austere academic circles of the powerful: In the elite club of the servants of the crown / whose doors are open for the leaders / under the Minister sign of Mammon / comes the pillar of the spirit, Kirill. The poem then describes the amazement of the geographers at the arrival of a representative of the Church: Looking at his impressive profile / I thought with my usual goodness / that geographers head must be spinning like a globe / at the unexpected arrival of the homiletic. // The religious seemed a bit 'old / hardly a lover of geography: / first he thought that the earth was flat / and many still think so, however. The poem then ends transforming the prize in geography into a proclamation of geopolitics, where the Patriarch stands out as great inspiration.

In the note of protest it is therefore noted that the poem "contains improper and unfair comparisons, as a whole raises the indignation of citizens and encourages the hostile feelings toward the Church and the person of the patriarch Kirill."

In fact, the personality of the Gundjaev patriarch has often been subject to smear campaigns, since the unfortunate episode of Pussy Riot.  In 2012, the three girls from the feminist punk band held an impromptu concert in the Cathedral of Our most Holy Saviour, considereda litany blasphemous (Mother of God, deliver us from Putin!). They also attacked the Patriarch who "believes in Putin rather than in God." Already before becoming patriarch, Metropolitan Kirill had been repeatedly targeted for his social and economic hyperactivity, with initiatives that were rather too daring and which had earned him the reputation of " church oligarch ".

Another famous gaffe of 2012 led to him being further pilloried when his 30 thousand euro watch by Breguet, "disappear" from the official photographs only to reappear on various internet sites causing endless controversy. In general, the personality of Kirill is often presented as too "worldly" and compromised with power, unlike the rigid standards of asceticism that usually distinguish the leaders of the Orthodox Church.

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