Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev of Moscow and all the Russias (1946- ) visiting a patient at the Children’s Hospice in St Petersburg… the Tea Party tries to tell you how the “profit motive” is so necessary in healthcare and medicine… this picture shows that to be a disgusting, demonic, and evil lie.
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It’s still unclear who needs whom more, whether sick children need us more, or whether we need them most. They help us to compare our trivial trials with true suffering; to see what’s really important, and what’s ephemeral and of no value at all.
Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev of Moscow and all the Russias
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On Saturday, Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev of Moscow and all the Russias visited a children’s hospice in St. Petersburg area of Kurakina Dacha. His Holiness, who celebrated his birthday on 20 November, met with children and their parents in a playroom. He emphasised their courage and strength of faith, which were indispensable for them to overcome their difficulties, and said that our view of events were very different from the dispositions of the Creator. “God views life in a different way, and we can’t see what God sees. We should accept with trust whatever He sends us. This is the real strength of Christianity”, Vladyki Kirill said. The children presented the Patriarch with hand-made figurines of angels. Patriarch Kirill visited wards and treatment rooms; he talked to the staff, expressing gratitude for their dedicated, patient, and god-pleasing work. His Holiness then went to the hospice’s chapel and addressed those gathered there, saying that he was happy to make this long-planned visit to the hospice on his birthday. “The most beautiful present that I received today, I saw in the faces of the doctors, personnel, and parents here… and, of course, the children. As the Lord said, My thoughts are not your thoughts; my words are not your words. We don’t know the way of the Divine, but what these children leave us is grace”, he said. Patriarch Kirill noted that people often attach too much importance to their own supposed sorrows, but they remained blind to the real sufferings of others. “It’s still unclear who needs whom more, whether sick children need us more, or whether we need them most. They help us to compare our trivial trials with true suffering and see what’s really important and what’s ephemeral, and of no value at all”, His Holiness noted.
His Holiness thanked the municipal authorities in St Petersburg for their aid in implementing the hospice project; he presented Church awards to members of the municipal government, and gave a copy of the Jerusalem icon of the Mother of God to the hospice chapel. “Visiting such places enriches me, it’s not just good feelings; in an intrinsic way, it uplifts and supports me spiritually. When we deal with seriously ill children, we have to deal with those who are very close to God. They see the Kingdom of God. Since they’re in contact with the holy, they receive a great gift of divine grace”, the patriarch told reporters after visiting the hospice. In turn, Valentina Matvienko, the Governor of the Federal City of St Petersburg, said that she’d been a hospice volunteer for quite some time, then, she approached the municipal government with the idea of creating the first and only children’s hospice in Russia. “This project has brought together a great number of trustees, many of whom who are here today are still working here. It unites all people with caring hearts. By the way, this is the only example in Russia where the head of such a public agency is a priest, Fr Aleksandr”, Governor Matvienko said.
In 2003, on the initiative of the Diocese of St Petersburg, a charitable foundation was established, and, in 2005, the non-profit medical institution Children’s Hospice (Хоспис (детский)) began operations. Over seven years, about 40 hospice staff provided medical, social, and psychological assistance to more than 180 families in St Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast. At that time, the total budget necessary to render medical consultation, medical treatment, diagnostic, procedural, and health services, along with medicines, food, and cash assistance amount to 1.2 million roubles (39,000 USD 28,000 Euros 24,000 UK Pounds) a month. In 2006, Governor Matvienko of St Petersburg supported the initiative of the Diocese of St Petersburg to create the first children’s hospice in Russia. In 2007, a decree of the municipal government transferred the building of the former Nikolaevsky Orphanage in Kurakina Dacha to the hospice for its use. Currently, hospice physicians supervise the cases of about 300 children living in St Petersburg. For 2010, budgetary allocations for its activities amounted to 39 million roubles (1.253 million USD 918,000 Euros 785,000 UK Pounds), and the budget for 2011 was set at 44 million roubles (1.413 million USD 1.036 million Euros 885,000 UK Pounds). A cleric of the Diocese of St Petersburg, Archpriest Aleksandr Tkachenko is Director-General of the Children’s Hospice.
22 November 2010
Interfax-Religion
http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=38327
Editor’s Note:
You can have His Holiness Patriarch Kirill and Benedict Ratzinger, the Pope of Rome… they say that universal access to health care is a human right. On the other hand, you have money-worshipping filth like Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, George Weigel, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, and Rush Limbaugh, who argue that we can’t cover everyone… it would raise taxes on the rich by a few pennies! POOR BABIES!
You can have the Good Samaritan… or you can have the scribes and pharisees. I would say that one of these things is not like the other, and that there is only one way that a real Orthodox person can go (the clerical gentleman who supports Rush Limbaugh should hang his head in shame… how could you?). Any questions?
BMD
Voices from Russia 
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