New leader seated in Russian Orthodox Church

updated 12:14 p.m. ET Feb. 1, 2009

MOSCOW - A new patriarch was seated on the throne of the Russian Orthodox Church Sunday, becoming the first leader of the world's largest Orthodox church to take office after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Patriarch Kirill, a veteran church diplomat and cautious advocate of change, became the 16th to bear the title in a solemn ceremony at Christ the Savior Cathedral, Moscow's most opulent church and itself a symbol of the rebirth of the Orthodox faith.

The original 19th-Century was dynamited under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin in 1931, but rebuilt in the late 1990s following the collapse of the officially atheist Soviet Union.

The vast cathedral was filled with ancient chants, incense smoke and politicians holding candles early Sunday as the gray-bearded Kirill, 62, received his vestments including a black-and-gold embroidered cassock and a gold brocade miter.

Putin, Medvedev at ceremony
The ceremony was attended by dozens of top clerics as well as President Dmitry Medvedev, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and scores of other government officials from Russia and ex-Soviet states.

The ceremony was broadcast live in national television.

Kirill was elected Tuesday by a church council that consisted of top clerics, monks and lay electors, including government officials and businessmen.

Kirill, the former head of the church's foreign relations department, succeeded Patriarch Alexy II, who died in early December after almost two decades at the helm of the Church.

Alexy, the church's first post-Soviet leader, led his institution during an era when millions of Russians returned to their historic faith. The church now claims to minister to a flock of 100 million believers in Russia, the former Soviet republics and across the globe.

But polls show that only about 5 percent of Russians are observant believers, and only 30 percent of the population believe they should follow the moral teachings of the Church.

Kirill, who has long been seen Alexy's deputy, has been critical of tolerance of homosexuality and abortion, multiparty democracy and the division of secular and religious authority.

Kirill adheres to nationalist ideas about Russia's role in the world and supports the concept of "Russian Civilization" that is naturally opposed to the West.

Advocates expanded outreach
He has repeatedly advocated expanding the church's outreach to younger and wider audiences, and has long pushed for introduction of Orthodox religious classes in schools.

Kirill is an unusually public and outspoken religious figure in the church known for its traditionalism and resistance to change. He runs television shows and frequently voices his opinion on secular matters, including Russia's current economic crisis.

Kirill will face opposition from a strong conservative movement within the church that sees him as too modern and too eager for a rapprochement with the Roman Catholic Church.

"He will have an uneasy choice — to initiate reforms and turn the church into a lively body that responds to the needs of modern man, or reject even superficial novelties and stick to the undying past," said religious expert Boris Falikov.

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