Fr Aleksandr Filippov Killed Near Moscow

Archpriest Aleksandr Filippov (1970- ), killed in a senseless criminal incident. This has no political, religious, or racial overtones whatsoever.

On Tuesday evening, a vagrant shot Archpriest Aleksandr Filippov, the rector of Ascension church in the village of Satino-Russkoye in Podolsk raion near Moscow, in the heart, his widow, Matushka Yelena, told our Interfax-Religion correspondent. “Fr Aleksandr was killed only because he upbraided a drifter who was urinating in the doorway”, she said. Now, after the death of Fr Aleksandr, his three teenaged daughters are orphans and his wife is widowed. Father Aleksandr was only 39-years-old.

Later that evening, police detained two men suspected in Fr Aleksandr’s murder, a source in the local police told Interfax. “The murder happened on Tuesday night. It started when two drunks tried to pee in the wrong place. Fr Aleksandr made some comments criticising their behaviour. The drunks took off after him and shot him at the entrance to his home. It was without rhyme or reason”, our source told us. The cops seized the murder suspects after a hot pursuit. They were a 35-year-old local resident and a 28-year-old from Vladimir oblast.

Meanwhile, another police source told Interfax that the cops arrested three suspects in the murder. According to this source, Fr Aleksandr made some remarks to a group of drunks in the courtyard of his house. “The priest wasn’t wearing his cassock; he was in his civvies. In response to his remarks, they dragged him to the entrance of his house, where they began to beat him”, he told us. The people in the house called the police, who detained the suspects. This source did not confirm the information that the priest was shot, saying instead that Fr Aleksandr died because of a beating.

This is the second murder of an Orthodox priest in the last month in the capital region. On 19 November, a famous missionary priest, Fr Daniil Sysoev, the rector of St Thomas church in Moscow, was shot in the head and killed. Overall, since 1990, 25 Orthodox priests were murdered in Russia.

22 December 2009

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=33472

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=33473

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Ded Moroz is Hangin’ with the Lot at KP!

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KP, for them not in the know is Komsomolskaya Pravda… one of the most popular Moscow dailies. It’s the Russian equivalent of the New York Post or the (London) Sun. I find it indispensable reading. Hey, where else are you going to get all the Moscow scandal and crime news? It’s a tab, but we all read ’em, and don’t be fooled by the idiots ostentatiously reading the NY Times or the Guardian. Betcha they got the Daily News or The News of the World in the back-seat of the auto! It’s got some of the most colourful columnists out there, and, let’s face it, it’s a FUN READ. Some of their writers are as good as the late Mike Royko, and that’s no lie. I don’t usually translate from KP because colloquial language is notoriously difficult to translate. I may do a piece now and again (I take that back, I have translated a couple of things from KP). Ded Moroz is going around… that means that the holiday’s almost here. He’s watchin’ ya!

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Tuesday 22 December 2009

Albany NY

Catholic Christmas Festival in Moscow to Present the Best Works of French Classics

RC Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Moscow

From 27 December to 9 January, in Moscow, the Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception shall hold the Second International Christmas Festival. Each year, the festival focuses on the Christmas musical traditions of a European country. This time, it will be devoted to France, a spokesman for the Искусство Добра (Iskusstvo Dobra: Art of Kindness) charity fund, the organiser of the event, told Interfax-Religion. For two weeks, the best musicians of France and Russia will present masterpieces of French musical culture.

Prelude to the Oratorio de Noël op 12 of Camille Saint-Saëns

Chorus no. 6 of the Oratorio de Noël op 12 of Camille Saint-Saëns

The festival will open with the Oratorio de Noël (Christmas Oratorio), op 12, by Camille Saint-Saëns, performed by the Новая Россия (Novaya Rossiya: New Russia) Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Yuri Bashmet and French singers. Then, the cathedral will give a gala concert of Russian organists, dedicated to French music. The Special Guest Artist of the Festival is the titular organist of the Parisian cathedral of Saint-Denis, Pierre Pensmay.

Prelude to Te Deum H146 of Marc-Antoine Charpentier

From Te Deum H146 of Marc-Antoine Charpentier

Young music fans are waiting for A Christmas Carol performed by the children’s choir of the Bolshoi Theatre, and adults want to hear the Christmas songs done by the Laurence Saltiel Jazz Quartet. A performance of two Baroque masterpieces, The French Overture of Johann Sebastian Bach and the Te Deum of Marc-Antoine Charpentier, shall close the Festival.

22 December 2009

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=33454

Priest Suspected in Rape of Underage Girl in Kabardino-Balkaria

THIS is where light-fingered Louies and abusers amongst the priests end up in Russia. Why can’t we do the same? “The records simply don’t exist”… tell THAT to the judge!

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In Kabardino-Balkaria, the Procurator’s Office conducted an initial inquiry concerning the pastor of an Orthodox parish suspected of committing sexual abuse against a child. “It’s established that, in November, a drunken clergyman lewdly assaulted and debauched a ten-year-old girl in a lounge car”, Tatiana Nauzhokova, a senior aide to the head of the Investigative Division of the SKP RF in Kabardino-Balkaria told Interfax. According to Ms Nauzhokova, the actions of the priest are signs of a crime under Part 3 of Article 135 of the Criminal Code (indecent assault against a person obviously under the age of twelve). She noted that the data assembled as evidence by the SKP against the priest gave sufficient grounds to initiate criminal proceedings against him.

22 December 2009

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=33455

Editor’s Note:

If there’s criminal action on the part of a priest in Russia, well… they hand him over to the cops and he ends up in a Russian slammer. Poor babies! Perhaps, they should’ve been clerics in the OCA. Let’s see… Raymond Velencia posts the Koumentakos divorce papers on a public website and sends confidential information on a former parishioner to the entire “Metropolitan Council”, Iggy and Bobby K destroy records (oh, I’m so sorry, Eric Tosi said, “The records simply don’t exist”), and we all know of the senior figure who took a powder for the Caribbean after unsavoury stories surfaced (the man involved was known for such doings in a certain Western European capital, as well). Add to this JP’s known ties to Gleb Podmoshensky, a figure deposed by the ROCOR Holy Synod on well-founded morals charges, one could only shake one’s head. Russian bishops hand over miscreants to the courts. Certain OCA bishops not only don’t do so, they reward the malefactors. It’s why OCA priests aren’t trusted. True, it’s not fair that the innocent suffer along with the guilty, but if the bishops REWARD the stinkers and persecute the good guys, what else do you expect prudent people to do? It’s why donations to the OCA are in the toilet (boasting about a picayune $15K fund drive on their official website was pathetic, friends and neighbours). What’s the reality behind all the “happy talk?” I don’t think that many truly wish to know… then, they might have to do something to fix it.

BMD