OCR
XAL4 of June 32. - page three While in the free workd, Orthodoxy, on its own initiative, is looking for common defense of religion and for re-unification with the "older Rome", in the Soviet world an artificial Church was revived by the governm nt and religious unification is State-controlled and imposed by force. The reyr¥al of the Orthodax Church was officially recognized by a Soviet law established on January 51, 1945. The inner organization of the Church, ruled in every detail, follows step by step the administration of the State. The head of the Church is the Patriarch of Moscow and of all the Russias. Together with the Holy Synode, a body of six members, he administers all Church affairs. He is alone to prepresent Orthodoxy at the outside. This means that he is the only one to speak in the name of the official Shurch With other Shurches and to deal with the "Council of Orthodox Religious Affaims an official body that works under the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union. ‘the “hurch is subdivided into dioceses, which territorially speaking have to correspond exactly to the republics, territories or provinces of the Soviet Union. the diocese is headed by a bishop. The latter is named by the Moscow Patriarch and the Holy Synode; responsible to them for all diocesan church affairs, each bishop has to send regular reports to the Moscow Patriarchate. Dioceses are againg subdivided into deaconeries and parishes. Official statistics evaluate their number at 22.000. ,he priests in charge are named and supervised by the bishop. Lach priest has to report twice a year and to inform his bishop of all trregularities that might occurin the parish and in the administration of the Church funds. These are raised by volunéary contributions of the faithful and are used exclusively for the purpose of maintaining the one building needed for the religious ceremonies. The Ghurch is allowed no other activities than the organization of the curt and the preaching of sermons during religious ceremonies; educational, cultural, recreational, social, charitable and other activities are forbidden under heavy penalties. “hese regulations show clearly what the Soviet State expects from the action of igs Church. Limited to the purely spiritual aims and able to develop only as far as the voluntary contributions of the faithful will allwuw it, the parishes have as sole aim to satisfy the religious needs of the older generation. It has been noted that churchgoers in Russia are as a general rule above 40 years of age. Unté&l the age of 18 years, no child is allowed to be taught any religion; except what his parents might tell him an the home. Only the official philosophy of a materialistic and atheistic State is to be given in school and komsomole A new generation is coming up that has no knowledge of God and that - Soviet leaders hope - will be ready in due time to liquidate the remmants of the past, meaning the Churche The Mescow Church has thus a three-fold aim to fulfill, according to the plans of its Soviet masters. At first it has to secure to the Soviet state a body at igs devotion that has enough religious and spiritual appeal to reconcile older people with the edification of a socialist order. This stage is already fully reached: the Orthodox Church is entirely controled by Soviet agents at every level of iss — ES eS LS eee Pde lek e