Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow

Patriarch Alexy II (or Alexius II, ; secular name Alexey Mikhailovich Ridiger ; 23 February 1929 – 5 December 2008) was the 15th Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church.
His name (secular Алексей, clerical Алексий) is transliterated from the Cyrillic alphabet into English in various forms, including Alexius, Aleksij, Aleksi, Aleksiy, Alexiy, Alexis, Alexei, Alexey, and Alexy. When he became a monk, his name was not changed, but his patron saint changed from Alexius of Rome to Alexius, Metropolitan of Moscow whose relics repose in the Theophany Cathedral in Moscow.
Elected Patriarch of Moscow one and half year prior to the Soviet Union's collapse, he became the first Russian Patriarch of the post-Soviet period.
==Family history==
Alexey Mikhailovich Ridiger's father Mikhail Ridiger (1902–1962), born in Saint Petersburg, was a descendant of a Baltic German family. His ancestor Captain Heinrich Nicolaus (Nils) Rüdinger, the commander of a Swedish fortification in Dünamünde, Swedish Livonia, was knighted by Charles XI of Sweden in 1695. After Swedish Estonia and Swedish Livonia became part of the Russian Empire in the aftermath of the Great Northern War in the beginning of the 18th century, another forefather of Alexy II, Friedrich Wilhelm von Rüdiger (1780–1840), adopted Orthodox Christianity during the reign of Catherine II of Russia. From the marriage with Darya Fyodorovna YerzhemskyThe spelling of the names here is transliteration from Russian in the Patriarch's official biography - АЛЕКСИЙ II Orthodox Encyclopaedia (2000) was born the future Patriarch's great-grandfather, Yegor (Georgi) von Rüdiger (1811–1848).
After the Russian October Revolution in 1917, Alexey Ridiger's father Mikhail became a refugee and the family settled in Estonia, first in Haapsalu where a shelter was provided by priest Ralph von zur Mühlen.
Later Mikhail moved to Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, where he met and married in 1926 Yelena Iosifovna Pisareva (1902–1959), who was born and later died there.
Alexey Ridiger's father graduated from the theological seminary in Tallinn in 1940 and was ordained a deacon and later a priest and served as the rector of the Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God in Tallinn. Later, he was a member and the chairman of the Diocesan Council in Estonia.
Patrilineal family tree
Heinrich Nicolaus (Nils) von Rüdinger(?-1711)	Peter von Rüdinger	Karl Magnus von Rüdinger (1753-1821) 	Friedrich (Fjodor) Wilhelm von Rüdiger(1780-1840)	Yegor (Georgi) von Rüdiger(1844-1877)	Aleksandr von Rüdiger (1844-1877) 	Aleksandr von Rüdiger (1870-1929) 	Mikhail von Ridiger (1902-1962) 	Alexey Ridiger(1929-2008)
Christine Elisabeth von Wickede(1680-1721) 	Elisabeth Wiesner 	Charlotte Margarethe von Maltitz(1758 – 1786)	Darya Fjodorovna Jerzhembska 	Margarita Feodorovna Gamburger 	Yevgenia Germanovna Gizetti(?-1905)	Aglaida Yulyevna von Baltz(1870-1956)	Jelena Iossifovna Pissareva(1902-1959)	Alexey Ridiger(1929-2008)
==Early life==
Alexey Ridiger was born and spend his childhood in the Republic of Estonia that had become a Russian Orthodox spiritual center and a home to many Russian émigrés after the Russian October Revolution in 1917.
From his early childhood Alexey Ridiger served in the Orthodox Church under the guidance of his spiritual father: Archpriest Ioann Bogoyavlensky.
Alexey Ridiger attended the Tallinn's Russian Gymnasium.
After the Soviet occupation of Estonia in 1940 Alexey Ridiger's family was listed for arrest in order to be deported from Estonia according to the Serov Instructions but were not found by the NKVD because instead of staying in their home they were hiding in a nearby hovel.
During Occupation of Estonia by Nazi Germany (1941-1944) Alexey Ridiger attended with his father Mikhail, who had become an orthodox priest on 20 December 1942, the German prison camps in Estonia offering salvation to the Russian prisoners of war. Such activities were tolerated by the German occupation authorities because it was seen as an effective anti Soviet propaganda. After Soviet forces returned to Estonia in the autumn of 1944, unlike the most of the people with Baltic German roots, the Ridiger family chose to stay in Estonia and didn't evacuate to the west.
During the war Joseph Stalin had revived the Russian Orthodox Church in the Soviet Union.Seventeen Moments in Soviet History Been closed during the war time, after the Soviet annexation of Estonia the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Tallinn was reopened in 1945. Alexey Ridiger who had become a Soviet citizen served as an altar boy in the cathedral from May to October 1946. He was made a psalm-reader in St.Simeon's Church later that year; in 1947, he officiated in the same office in the Church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God in Tallinn.
==Career==
He entered Leningrad Theological Seminary in 1947, and graduated in 1949. He then entered the Leningrad Theological Academy (now Saint Petersburg Theological Seminary), and graduated in 1953.ALEXY II, PATRIARCH OF MOSCOW AND ALL RUSSIA, BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE, Biography, on the Moscow Patriarchate Official website.Encyclopedia Britannica Online, s.v. Alexis II, http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9005644/Alexis-II 1/19/2008
On 15 April 1950, he was ordained a deacon by Metropolitan Gregory (Chukov) of Leningrad, and on 17 April 1950, he was ordained a priest and appointed rector of the Theophany church in city of Jõhvi, Estonia, in the Tallinn Diocese. On 15 July 1957, Fr. Alexiy was appointed Rector of the Cathedral of the Dormition in Tallinn and Dean of the Tartu district. He was elevated to the rank of Archpriest on 17 August 1958, and on 30 March 1959 he was appointed Dean of the united Tartu-Viljandi deanery of the Tallinn diocese. On 3 March 1961 he was tonsured a monk in the Trinity Cathedral of the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius.
On 14 August 1961, he was chosen to be the Orthodox Church Bishop of Tallinn and Estonia. On 23 June 1964, he was elevated to the rank of archbishop; and, on 25 February 1968, at the age of 39, metropolitan.
In 1986 he was released from the post of the Chancellor, which he had held since 1961 and which allowed him to be based in the Moscow Patriarchy's headquarters, and transferred to Leningrad; the decision was effectively made by the Council for Religious Affairs and was later presented by Alexy as punishment for his letter in December 1985 to Mikhail Gorbachev with proposals of reforms to church-state relations. Shortly after Alexy's death, the then Chairman of the Council Kharchev strongly denied that and said the decision was aimed at "defusing the tense emotional atmosphere within Patriarch Pimen's inner circle".Патриарх демократической волны Nezavisimaya gazeta December 17, 2008. In an earlier interview Kharchev suggested the removal had been requested by Patriarch Pimen "for a year"К. М. Харчев : «Церковь повторяет ошибки КПСС» Konstantin Kharchev's interview published December 29, 2001.
After the death of Patriarch Pimen I in 1990 Alexiy was chosen to become the new Patriarch of The Russian Orthodox Church. He was chosen on the basis of his administrative experience, and was considered "intelligent, energetic, hardworking, systematic, perceptive, and businesslike."Nathaniel Davis, A Long Walk to Church: A Contemporary History of Russian Orthodoxy, 2nd Edition.(Oxford: Westview Press, 2003),p 85. He also "had a reputation as a conciliator, a person who could find common ground with various groups in the episcopate."Nathaniel Davis, A Long Walk to Church: A Contemporary History of Russian Orthodoxy, 2nd Edition.(Oxford: Westview Press, 2003),p 86. Archbishop Chrysostom (Martyshkin) remarked "With his peaceful and tolerant disposition Patriarch Aleksi will be able to unite us all."Zhurnal Moskovskoi Patriarkhii, No. 10 (October), 1990, p.16, quoted in Nathaniel Davis, A Long Walk to Church: A Contemporary History of Russian Orthodoxy, 2nd Edition.(Oxford: Westview Press, 2003),p 284.
Patriarch Alexy II was "the first patriarch in Soviet history to be chosen without government pressure; candidates were nominated from the floor, and the election was conducted by secret ballot."
Upon taking on the role of Patriarch, Patriarch Alexy became a vocal advocate of the rights of the church, calling for the Soviet government to allow religious education in the state schools and for a “freedom of conscience” law. During the attempted coup in August 1991, he denounced the arrest of Mikhail Gorbachev, and anathematized the plotters. He publicly questioned the junta's legitimacy, called for restraint by the military, and demanded that Gorbachev be allowed to address the people.Nathaniel Davis, A Long Walk to Church: A Contemporary History of Russian Orthodoxy, 2nd Edition.(Oxford: Westview Press, 2003),p 96. He issued a second appeal against violence and fratricide, which was amplified over loudspeakers to the troops outside the Russian "White House" half an hour before they attacked. Ultimately, the coup failed, which eventually resulted in the breakup of the Soviet Union.Nathaniel Davis, A Long Walk to Church: A Contemporary History of Russian Orthodoxy, 2nd Edition.(Oxford: Westview Press, 2003),p 97.
In July 1998 Alexy II decided not to officiate in the Peter and Paul Cathedral of Saint Petersburg at the burial of the royal family murdered by the Bolsheviks in 1918, a ceremony attended by President Boris Yeltsin, citing doubts about the authenticity of the remains.http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/133725.stm
Under his leadership, the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia who suffered under Communism were glorified, beginning with the Grand Duchess Elizabeth, Metropolitan Vladimir of Kiev, and Metropolitan Benjamin of Petrograd in 1992.Timothy Ware, The Orthodox Church, New Edition, (London: Penguin Books, 1997), p. 164, see also New Martyrs, Confessors, and Passion-Bearers of Russia In 2000, after much debate, the All-Russian Council glorified Tsar Nicholas II and his family (see Romanov sainthood), as well as many other New Martyrs.Sophia Kishkovsky, Russian Orthodox Church is set to mend a bitter schism, International Herald Tribune, May 16, 2007; Second day of bishops' council: Nicholas' canonization approved, Communications Service, Department of External Church Relations, Moscow Patriarchate, August 14, 2000 More names continue to be added to list of New Martyrs, after the Synodal Canonization Commission completes its investigation of each case.Maxim Massalitin,The New Martyrs Unify Us: Interview with Archpriest Georgy Mitrofanov, participant of the All-Diaspora Pastoral Conference in Nyack (December 8-12, 2003), Pravoslavie.ru, December 13, 2003
Alexy II had complicated relations with John Paul II and the Roman Catholic Church. He had a dispute with Rome over the property rights of the Greek-Catholic Church in Ukraine, which had emerged from Soviet control after the Gorbachev's liberalisation of Russia.Alexy II and dialogue He nevertheless had good relations with Latin-rite Christians in France and was friends with Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, who invited him to the country shortly before his death.Le patriarche Alexis II est arrivé en France
Patriarch Alexy II repeatedly affirmed the traditional stand of the Orthodox Church and opposed the display of homosexuality in Russia, and in particular, opposed gay parades in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The Church, according to the Patriarch, "has invariably supported the institution of the family and condemns untraditional relations, seeing them as a vicious deviation from God-given human nature". He also said, "I am convinced that gays' desire to organize a parade in Moscow will not help strengthen the family as the foundation of a strong state". He also said that homosexuality is an illness, and a distortion of the human personality like kleptomania.
Patriarch Alexy has also issued statements condemning anti-Semitism.
On 27 April 2007, he was reported by some Russian media to be in grave condition and even dead,Патриархия: Алексий II жив, здоров и вернется к исполнению обязанностей уже на майские праздники. NEWSru.com April 27, 2007.Патриарх между жизнью и смертью. Gazeta.ru April 27, 2007. though this was later shown to have been a hoax.MOSCOW PATRIARCHATE CONDEMNS MEDIA SPREADING RUMORS ON PATRIARCH'S HEALTH Interfax, May 1, 2007PATRIARCH ALEXY II PHILOSOPHIC ABOUT RUMORS OF HIS "DEATH" Interfax, May 1, 2007PATRIARCHAL PRESS SERVICE IDENTIFIES GUILTY IN SPREADING OF FALSE INFORMATION, Religiia v svetskom obshchestve, May 3, 2007WHO ORGANIZED THE PROVOCATIVE RUMORS ON EVE OF MAY 17?, "Postscript" TV program, May 12, 2007 Patriarch Alexiy has stated that the motivation behind these rumors were to scuttle the upcoming reconciliation between the Russian Church inside of Russia with the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.Russian Patriarch confounds rumors: 'I'm alive', Ecumenical New International, May 5, 2007 "As you can see, I'm healthy, I'm serving, I'm alive," he is quoted as saying. Despite his age, he appeared healthy, and had been leading an active pastoral life. He was frequently seen on Russian TV, conducting Church services, and meeting with various government officials.
In February 2007 a controversy erupted when Diomid, Bishop of Chukotka, condemned the ROC's hierarchy and personally Patrirch Alexy II for ecumenism, supporting democracy and misguided loyalty to the Russian secular authorities. Bishop Diomid also took the position that taxpayer IDs, cell phones, passports, vaccination and globalisation were tools of the antichrist, and that the leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church have "departed from the purity of the Orthodoxal dogma" in its support of the Russian government and of democracy, as well as its ecumenism with other confessions. After a decision of the All-Russian Council, and Bishop Diomid's refusal to appear, he was defrocked in July 2008, In turn, Diomid issued a proclamation in which he anathematized Patriarch Alexy, and some other bishops.
Patriarch Alexiy died at his residence in Peredelkino, outside Moscow on 5 December 2008.Interfax News Agency, December 5, 2008
==Personal life==
He married Vera Alekseeva,Алексеева Вера Георгиевна in «Энциклопедия Зарубежной России» the daughter of a priest from Tallinn Georgi Alekseev, later Bishop of Tallinn and Archbishop of Gorki, on 11 April 1950,Wife of the Patriarch, by Evgeniy Sidorenko, Moscow News, № 21 (2001-05-22)Евгений Сидоренко. Замужем за Патриархом Same article, but with the original photographs of the printed article.Путь Первоиерарха Nezavisimaya gazeta December 17, 2008. on the Tuesday of Bright Week when marriages are normally prohibited according to Church tradition; however, permission was granted by Metropolitan Gregory of Leningrad, at the request of Bishop Roman of Tallinn and the fathers of both the bride and groom (both of whom were priests, and who concelebrated the marriage together). Moskovskie Novosti has alleged that according to a denunciation written by a priest-inspector Pariysky to the Leningrad Council of Religious Affairs, the marriage had been expedited in order for Ridiger to become a deacon and avoid being drafted into the Soviet Military (marriage is impossible after ordination in Orthodoxy). Up until 1950, seminarians were given a deferment from the draft, but in 1950 this was changed, and only clergy were exempt. For reasons which have remained private, they divorced less than a year later.
The Patriarch's private residence was located in the village of Lukino (near Peredelkino), now a western suburb of Moscow; it includes a 17th-century church, a museum, and a spacious three-storey house built in the late 1990s. According to the Patriarch's May, 2005, interview,Интервью Святейшего Патриарха Алексия ежедневной газете «Газета». «Загородную резиденцию в полной мере ощущаю своим домом». on the residence's compound, nuns drawn from the Pühtitsa Convent took care of all the household chores.
There was also a working residence in central Moscow—a 19th-century town mansion, which had been turned over to the Patriarchate by Stalin's order in September 1943. Both residences acted as living quarters and Patriarch's office at the same time. He commuted in an armored car and was under the protection of federal agents (FSO) since January 2000.Колода Российской Федерации. Коммерсантъ Власть. №44 [547] 10.11.2003.
The formal residence (infrequently used for some official functions) is located in the Moscow Danilov Monastery – a two-storey Soviet building erected in the 1980s.
==Awards and honours==
2000 – Russia, the national Man of the Year prize and the Outstanding People of the 1990–2000 Decade.
2003 – Estonian civilian order, the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana, 1st Class.
2005 – The first laureate of the State Prize of the Russian Federation for humanitarian work.Президент России
2006 – The Muslim Board of the Caucasus Allahshukur Pashazade, the highest Muslim Order of Sheikh ul-Islam.
Patriarch Alexy II was an honorary member of the Theological Academies in St. Petersburg, Moscow and Crete, Greece. He was made Doctor of Theology honoris causa at the Theological Academy in Debrecen of the Reformed Church in Hungary. He also was honored by St. Vladimir's Seminary and St. Tikhon's Seminary an at the Alaska Pacific University, Anchorage in the USA. He was given the title of honorary professor by the Omsk State University and the Moscow State University. He was given an honorary Doctorate of Philology by St. Petersburg University. He was given an honorary Doctorate of Theology by the Theological Faculty of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Belgrade. He was given an honorary Doctorate of Theology by the Tbilisi Theological Academy in Georgia. He received a Golden Medal from the Faculty of Orthodox Theology of the Kosice University in Kosice, Slovakia, and was an honorary member of the International Charity and Health Foundation.
==Controversies==
===Apology to Germany===
During Alexy II's first official visit to Germany in 1995, the Patriarch publicly apologized for the "Communist tyranny that had been imposed upon the German nation by the USSR". The apology resulted in accusations by Russian Communists and the Russian National Bolshevik Party of insulting the Russian nation and treason.
===Opposition in the Church===
Some activities, views and policies of Alexy II such as engaging in ecumenical dialogue (when Metropolitan, Alexy had been one of the Presidents of the Conference of European Churches since 1964; in March 1987 he was elected President of the CEC Presidium and Advisory Committee, in which post he remained until November 1990ЖМП (Russian edition of The Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate), 1991, # 2, p. 61.) with representatives of other religious groups and publicly condemning antisemitism were met with opposition by some in the Russian Orthodox Church. Patriarch Alexy II responded by saying that such people do not represent the opinions of the Church but expressed their own private views as free citizens instead.Pospielovsky, pp.396-397
===Alleged work for the KGB===
Patriarch Alexy II was alleged to have been a KGB agent according to multiple sources,Alexiy Ridiger, by Yakov KrotovConfirmed: Russian Patriarch Worked with KGB, Catholic World News, retrieved 29-12-2007Russian Patriarch "was KGB spy" The Guardian February 12, 1999Chekists in Cassocks: The Orthodox Church and the KGB – by Keith Armes, DemokratizatsiyaThe Russian Orthodox Church under Patriarch Aleksii II and the Russian State: An Unholy Alliance? – by Leslie L. McGann, Demokratizatsiya including Gleb Yakunin and Yevgenia Albats, who both were given access to the KGB archives.Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West, Gardners Books (2000), ISBN 0-14-028487-7Yevgenia Albats and Catherine A. Fitzpatrick. The State Within a State: The KGB and Its Hold on Russia — Past, Present, and Future. 1994. ISBN 0-374-52738-5, page 46.Konstantin Preobrazhenskiy – Putin's Espionage Church, an excerpt from a forthcoming book, "Russian Americans: A New KGB Asset" by Konstantin Preobrazhenskiy He was mentioned in the KGB archives by the code name DROZDOV. However, it was very unusual for any person to be referenced in KGB documents prior to 1980 without a code name, regardless of their affiliation with, or independence from the KGB. It has been alleged that archival documents seen by Yevgenia Albats stated that Alexy was awarded an Honorary Citation by the KGB chairman in 1988. It has also been claimed, based on a document from the Estonian KGB archives, that Alexy was a highly successful agent who "pacified" rebellious monks.Cold War Lingers At Russian Church In New Jersey By Suzanne Sataline, Wall Street Journal July 18, 2007. This document provides biographical details about an agent which match those of Patriarch Alexy, though the Russian Orthodox Church has denied the authenticity of this document. According to Oleg Gordievsky, Alexy had been working for the KGB for forty years, and his case officer was Nikolai Patrushev. These claims are supported by the British-based Keston Institute.Patriarch Alexy II was KGB informer: Institute
The Moscow Patriarchate has, however, consistently denied that Patriarch Alexy was in fact a KGB Agent."Official spokesman for the Moscow Patriarchy Father Vsevolod Chaplin labeled such reports as "absolutely unsubstantiated" in a Wednesday interview with Interfax. "There is no data indicating that Patriarch Alexy II was an associate of the special services, and no classified documents bear his signature," he said. "I do not think that direct dialogue between the current patriarch and KGB took place," Father Vsevolod continued. However, "all bishops communicated with representatives of the council for religious matters in the Soviet government, which was inevitable, since any issue, even the most insignificant one, had to be resolved through this body. It is quite another matter that the council forwarded all its materials to the KGB," he said." Moscow Patriarchate Rejects Times Report of Alexy II'S Collaboration with KGB, Sept 20, 2000 (Interfax) "Chaplin, the church spokesman, said in March, "Nobody has ever seen a single real document that would confirm the patriarch used his contacts with Soviet authorities to make harm to the church or to any people in the church." Russia's Well-Connected Patriarch, Washington Post Foreign Service , 23 May 2002; "Father Chaplin said: 'In recent times many anonymous photocopies of all sorts of pieces of paper have been circulated. In none of them is there the slightest evidence that the individuals we are talking about knew that these documents were being drawn up, or gave their consent. So I don't think any reasonably authoritative clerical or secular commission could see these papers as proof of anything.'", Russian Patriarch 'was KGB spy', The Guardian (London) , February 12, 1999 Konstanin Kharchev, former chairman of Soviet Council on Religious Affairs, explained: "Not a single candidate for the office of bishop or any other high-ranking office, much less a member of Holy Synod, went through without confirmation by the Central Committee of the CPSU and the KGB". Professor Nathaniel Davis points out: "If the bishops wished to defend their people and survive in office, they had to collaborate to some degree with the KGB, with the commissioners of the Council for Religious Affairs, and with other party and governmental authorities."Nathaniel Davis, A Long Walk to Church: A Contemporary History of Russian Orthodoxy,(Oxford: Westview Press, 1995),p .96 Davis quotes one bishop as saying: "Yes, we -- I, at least, and I say this first about myself -- I worked together with the KGB. I cooperated, I made signed statements, I had regular meetings, I made reports. I was given a pseudonym -- a code name as they say there... I knowingly cooperated with them -- but in such a way that I undeviatingly tried to maintain the position of my Church, and, yes, also to act as a patriot, insofar as I understood, in collaboration with these organs. I was never a stool pigeon, nor an informer."
Patriarch Alexy has, acknowledged that compromises were made with the Soviet government by bishops of the Moscow Patriarchate, himself included, and publicly repented of these compromises:
"Defending one thing, it was necessary to give somewhere else. Were there any other organizations, or any other people among those who had to carry responsibility not only for themselves but for thousands of other fates, who in those years in the Soviet Union were not compelled to act likewise? Before those people, however, to whom the compromises, silence, forced passivity or expressions of loyalty permitted by the leaders of the church in those years caused pain, before these people, and not only before God, I ask forgiveness, understanding and prayers."From an interview of Patriarch Alexy II, given to "Izvestia" No 137, June 10, 1991, entitled "Patriarch Alexy II: -- I Take upon Myself Responsibility for All that Happened", English translation from Nathaniel Davis, A Long Walk to Church: A Contemporary History of Russian Orthodoxy,(Oxford: Westview Press, 1995),p 89. See also History of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, by St. John (Maximovich) of Shanghai and San Francisco, December 31, 2007
According to Nathaniel Davis, when asked by the Russian press about claims that he was a "compliant" bishop, "Aleksi defended his record, noting that while he was bishop of Tallinn in 1961, he resisted the communist authorities' efforts to make the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in the city a planetarium (which, in truth, they did do elsewhere in the Baltic states) and to convert the Pyukhtitsa Dormition nunnery to a rest home for miners."Nathaniel Davis, A Long Walk to Church: A Contemporary History of Russian Orthodoxy,(Oxford: Westview Press, 1995),p. 89f Official records show that the Tallinn diocese had a lower number of forced Church closings than was typical in the rest of the USSR during Patriarch Alexy's tenure as bishop there.Nathaniel Davis, A Long Walk to Church: A Contemporary History of Russian Orthodoxy,(Oxford: Westview Press, 1995), fn. 115, p. 272 Timothy Ware notes, "Opinions differ over the past collaboration or otherwise between the Communist authorities, but on the whole he is thought to have shown firmness and independence in his dealings as a diocesan bishop with the Soviet State."Timothy Ware, The Orthodox Church, New Edition, (London: Penguin Books, 1997), p. 164
===Opposition to homosexuality===
He provoked criticism on the part of both Russia's and western LGBT groups by his firm stance against any public display of homosexuality: "I am convinced that gays' desire to organize a parade in Moscow will not help strengthen the family as the foundation of a strong state".http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=1164 He also said that homosexuality is an illness and a distortion of the human personality like kleptomania.http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/10/02/africa/church.phphttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=RFBLLGOXBYBQNQFIQMGCFFWAVCBQUIV0?xml=/news/2007/10/03/wgay103.xml
This is what the Orthodox Church considers as their beliefs about homosexuality:
==Death and burial==
Alexy died at his home at his Peredelkino residence on 5 December 2008, reportedly of heart failure.
On 7 December 2008, Russia President Medvedev issued a decree which "enjoined" that on the day of the Patriarch's burial Russia's cultural establishments and broadcasters should cancel entertaining programmes and assistance be furnished to the Patrirchate on the part of the federal and city governments for organisation of the burial.Указ Президента № 1729/2008 kremlin.ru However, the order did not amount to a formal national mourning.Печаль без траура: Медведев велел ограничить развлекательные мероприятия в день похорон Алексия II NEWSru.com December 8, 2008.
On 9 December 2008, the Order for the Burial (funeral service) of the deceased Patriarch was presided over by the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour,Патриарх Алексий завершил свой земной путь NEWSru.com December 9, 2008. whereafter he was interred in the southern chapel of the Epiphany Cathedral at Elokhovo in Moscow.
During the service in the Christ the Saviour Cathedral, which was broadcast live by Russia's state TV channels, after Kathisma XVII had been chanted and Metropolitan Kirill set about doing the incensing round the coffin, he appeared to teeter and, being propped up by two bishops,ФОТОГАЛЕРЕЯ: Пути Местоблюстителя... Митрополит Кирилл и его "школа" was ushered into the sanctuary, whereafter he was absent for about an hour. Reuters reported: "Kirill was helped away by aides at one point and a Kremlin official said he had apparently fainted. The metropolitan later rejoined the funeral." The ROC official spokesman Vsevolod Chaplin lashed out at the news media that had reported the incident "incorrectly" insisting that Kirill had not fainted, but merely had "felt unwell".
==Opinions about Alexy II==
* According to Russia's Prime-minister Vladimir Putin: "Patriarch Alexy II had been a prominent figure in the history of the Russian Orthodox Church, as well as a great statesman <...> he made a very considerable contribution to relations between various faiths. It would not be an exaggeration to say that he had friendly relations with representatives of all traditional faiths in Russia". Putin also acknowledged that Alexy II "did a great deal to help establish a new governance system in Russia".
* On the day of Alexy II death the BBC said: "Patriarch Alexiy II had an extraordinary career, in which he switched from suppressing the Russian Orthodox Church to being its champion. A favourite of the KGB, he was promoted rapidly through the Church hierarchy, doing the Kremlin's bidding at a time when dissident priests were thrown into jail. As the Church's effective foreign minister, he helped cover up the repression of Russian Christians, defending the Soviet system to the outside world. He rose quickly through the ranks, being elected head of the Russian Orthodox Church at a crucial time, in 1990, with the Soviet Union on the path to collapse. Surprisingly, perhaps, he seized the moment, and went on to oversee the revival and flowering of the Church."
* Rabbi Arthur Schneier, a leader in the American Jewish community, was asked by church officials to attend the Patriarch's funeral. In a statement, he stated that Alexy II "served as the ethical pulse of the religious community in the former Soviet Union under a regime that neither welcomed nor tolerated people of faith and the leaders of organized religion."
* Toomas Hendrik Ilves, President of Estonia: "I will always remember Alexius II as an especially wise man who was respected by people from the religious and secular worlds alike."
==References==
==External links==
* His Holiness Alexy II, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia
* His Holiness Alexy II, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia
* 
* The Address of Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia to the PACE
Category:1929 births
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Category:Metropolitans and Patriarchs of Moscow
Category:Archbishops and Metropolitans of Novgorod
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Category:Eastern Orthodox monks
Category:State Prize of the Russian Federation laureates
Category:People from Tallinn
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Category:German Russians
Category:Deaths from heart failure
Category:Order of Merit for the Fatherland recipients
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ca:Patriarca Alexis II
cs:Alexij II.
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it:Alessio II (patriarca)
he:אלכסיי השני
ka:ალექსი II (მოსკოვის პატრიარქი)
la:Alexius II (patriarcha Moscuensis)
hu:II. Alekszij pátriárka
nl:Alexius II van Moskou
ja:アレクシイ2世
no:Aleksij II
nn:Aleksej II
pl:Aleksy II (patriarcha Moskwy)
pt:Aleixo II de Moscou
ksh:Alexius II.
ro:Patriarhul Alexei al II-lea al Moscovei
ru:Алексий II
simple:Patriarch Alexius II
sk:Alexej II.
sr:Патријарх Алексије II
fi:Aleksei II
sv:Aleksij II
uk:Алексій II
zh:阿列克謝二世