Patriarch Kirill has angered many in echoing the language Vladimir Putin uses to justify the Ukraine invasion.
Highlights
- Patriarch Kirill has become one of the war’s most prominent backers.
- His sermons echo, and in some cases even supply, the rhetoric that Vladimir Putin has used to justify the assault on cities and civilians.
- In the process, he has caused deep schisms in the global Orthodox Church, with priests in Ukraine, elsewhere in Europe and the U.S.
- condemning his support.
- Even dozens of lower-ranking clergy in Russia have broken with the 75-year-old patriarch, adding their signatures to an open letter decrying the invasion.
- The Orthodox Church was a dominant force in Russian life until the Bolshevik Revolution, when the Soviets heavily restricted the faith.