Smartphone users warned to be careful of the Antichrist

By Anastasia Clark and Chris Bell

BBC Monitoring and BBC News

08 January 2019 

BBC Trending

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Patriarch Kirill conducting a Christmas liturgy


People's dependence on smartphones and modern technology could bring about the coming of the Antichrist, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church has warned.

Russian social media users largely responded with humour and scepticism, while some accused the Church of "serving the regime" .

Speaking to Russian state TV, Patriarch Kirill said smartphone users should be careful when using the "worldwide web of gadgets" because it represented "an opportunity to gain global control over mankind".

"The Antichrist is the person who will be at the head of the worldwide web, controlling all of humankind," he said.

"Every time you use your gadget, whether you like it or not, whether you turn on your location or not, somebody can find out exactly where you are, exactly what your interests are and exactly what you are scared of," Patriarch Kirill told Rossiya 1.

"If not today, then tomorrow methods and technology could appear that will not just provide access to all information but will also allow the use of this information.

"Do you imagine what power will be concentrated in the hands of those who gain knowledge about what is going on in the world?

"Such control from one place forebodes the coming of the Antichrist."

Russian Orthodox church calls on Pope Francis, UN for help in Ukraine

Nataliya Vasilyeva

Dec 14, 2018

ASSOCIATED PRESS



In this file photo from Nov. 4, 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill, left, walk to lay flowers at the monument of Minin and Pozharsky at Red Square in Moscow, during National Unity Day. The Russian Church said on Friday, Dec. 14, 2018, that Patriarch Kirill has sent a letter to the U.N. secretary-general, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, Pope Francis, the Archbishop of Canterbury and other spiritual leaders, urging them to help protect the clerics, believers and their faith in Ukraine. (Credit: Alexander Nemenov/Pool Photo via AP.)



MOSCOW, Russia - The Russian Orthodox church on Friday called on Pope Francis, the United Nations, the leaders of Germany and France, and other spiritual leaders to protect believers in Ukraine in the face of pressure on Moscow-affiliated clerics.

Ukraine’s Orthodox clerics will gather for a meeting Saturday that is expected to form a new, independent Ukrainian church, and Ukrainian authorities have ramped up pressure on priests to support the move. The Ukrainian church has been part of the Russian church for centuries, while enjoying broad autonomy, but Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has pushed for the creation of an independent church.

The newly formed community would then be expected to receive independence from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Istanbul-based institution considered the so-called “first among equals” of leaders of the world’s Orthodox Churches that has already drafted a charter for an independent Ukrainian church.

The Russian church said on Friday that its Patriarch Kirill has sent a letter to Francis, the U.N. secretary-general, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, the Archbishop of Canterbury and other spiritual leaders, urging them to help protect the clerics, believers and their faith in Ukraine.

Merkel’s spokeswoman and the German foreign ministry spokesman said they didn’t immediately have any information on the letter.

As church tensions have grown, Ukraine’s Security Service has searched Russian Orthodox churches and the homes of Russian Orthodox priests in several cities. The agency also has summoned dozens of priests for questioning.

Ukrainian authorities have sought to portray Russian Orthodox priests in Ukraine as supporting Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, claims that the clerics have rejected.

Kirill’s letter accused the Ukrainian government of hate speech and pressuring the clerics to take part in the Saturday gathering.

“The numerous instances of discrimination against the Ukrainian church (of the Moscow Patriarchate) give us the reason to fear far worse infringements of the rights and legitimate interests of Orthodox believers,” the letter said.

In Kiev, about 100 people led by a Moscow-affiliated cleric were holding prayers near the Ukrainian parliament Friday morning to protest the creation of a new church.

Some voiced fears that authorities will seize churches from the communities under the Moscow patriarchate and give them to the new church.

Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.

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Russian patriarch in Cuba before pope meeting

By Carlos Batista

1 hour ago



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Havana (AFP) - Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill arrived on Thursday in Cuba, where he will sit down with Pope Francis in the first meeting of its kind since the historic 11th-century church schism.


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The 69-year-old Kirill, in black robes and white headdress, was greeted by Cuba's communist President Raul Castro at Havana airport, where the Russian church leader was due to meet with Francis on Friday.

That meeting, set for Friday afternoon, will be the first of its kind since Christianity split into Western and Eastern branches in 1054.

It is Kirill's fourth visit to Russia's Cold War Latin American ally Cuba, but his first as patriarch, overall head of the powerful Russian Orthodox church.

"I am visiting Cuba for the fourth time with very warm feelings. I have come here on a visit of friendship," the white-bearded patriarch said in a short speech after arriving on a Russian government plane.

"The Russian and Cuban people are united by many years of collaboration, cooperation and friendship," he added.

"I wish the Cuban people well."

Francis makes a short stopover in Havana on Friday on his way to Mexico for an official visit.

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Pope Francis on February 10, 2016 at the Vatican (AFP Photo/Alberto Pizzoli)

Kirill's 11-day trip will also take him to Paraguay and Brazil.

"This will be a long and difficult journey," the patriarch said in Moscow before leaving. "It requires spiritual and physical strength."

- Historic Orthodox-Catholic meeting -

The Russian church said their meeting would focus on the persecution of Christians around the world and that a joint declaration would be issued.

"This historic meeting clearly marks a new stage in our relations," the Orthodox Church's spokesman Alexander Volkov said Tuesday.

He said it was not political and could open "new prospects" for cooperation between the two branches of the church.

A meeting between the two religious leaders has been on the cards for some time, with Francis saying in 2014 he was willing to meet Kirill "wherever you want. You call me and I'll come."

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Cuban president Raul Castro (L) welcomes Patriarch Kirill (C), upon his arrival at Jose Marti Intern …


Relations between the two churches have been frosty for centuries because of the legacy of the Great Schism of 1054 and the recriminations and mutual excommunications that followed.

The Orthodox Church's refusal to accept the primacy of the Roman pontiff has long been the primary barrier to a rapprochement. But more recently, relations have been strained by the fallout from the conflict in Ukraine.

A close ally of President Vladimir Putin, the patriarch has fervently backed Moscow's military action abroad.

The patriarch denounced the "anti-Russian" policies of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, an Eastern rite church that recognizes the pope and is a source of friction between Moscow and the Vatican.

- Meeting Fidel Castro -

Kirill was due to meet on Friday morning with Cuba's atheist president before the pope's arrival in the afternoon.

On Sunday, Kirill will hold a mass in the Our Lady of Kazan Orthodox cathedral, which he consecrated in 2008.

He was expected to meet with Cuba's former president Fidel Castro, 89, the revolutionary leader who handed the presidency to his brother Raul, 84, in 2008 due to ailing health.

The patriarch was also due to visit a school for children with disabilities, attend a concert and lay flowers at a Soviet memorial in Havana.

Cuba hosted Russian personnel during the Cold War and is currently home to some 3,000 Orthodox worshippers.

They are outnumbered in the former Spanish colony by Roman Catholics, Protestants and practitioners of African-rooted cults.

The Cuban state is officially secular.

Fidel Castro has said that Kirill "is not the enemy of socialism. He does not condemn to eternal fire those of us who use Leninist Marxism as a basis to fight for a just world."

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