On the one hand, our, human, priestly service is a triple responsibility: the bishop (and in general, the clergy), the priest himself and the community (in our case, the parish). There are requirements for a priest (what he should be), but there are also conditions and requirements that the Church must comply with. In this context, we must talk about mutual rights and responsibilities. But on the other hand, God’s, all this is not enough. The priest serves people and God, and therefore Christians are sure that a calling, the blessing of God and special gifts of the Holy Spirit are necessary. The priesthood stands at the intersection of many wills, responsibilities, and opportunities.
I once wrote about the priesthood. Let me remind you that it consists of being the head of the Christian community, being an example, leading people on the paths of life with Christ. Service - both in standing at divine services, and in teaching, and in managing the community. A priest is an elder, a headman, a mentor, a good adviser, a father and a friend.
Cases of priests being banned or leaving are quite rare. They are not decisive and characteristic of the entire picture of the priesthood in the Russian Church. But this does not mean that there are few of them and that questions do not arise about the reasons for leaving and the fate of those who left.
Why are they removed from the priesthood?
The criteria for removing priests from ministry, or, as they say, banning them, are to one degree or another fixed in church legislation. The final decision is made by the bishop - the head of the diocese.
Let me remind you of the words of the Apostle Paul, which formed the basis of the requirements and conditions. A priest can be a person of impeccable life, married no more than once, sober-minded, sensible, serious, hospitable, capable of teaching; not a drunkard, not a fighter, able to control himself, gentle, not cocky, not greedy for money; a man capable of managing his home well, a father of obedient and worthy children. After all, if someone cannot manage his own household, will he be able to take care of the Church of God? He must not be a convert. It is necessary that he have a good reputation outside the church. The future priest must first be tested, and if nothing is found behind him, then let him serve.
Ideally, a pastor is chosen from a community that wants to see him as a shepherd, mentor, friend and prayer leader.
I think it is completely clear that a Christian can become a priest if he has not only a deep personal faith in Christ, but also knowledge about this faith, as well as knowledge about church tradition and history. He must understand the basic doctrinal issues, must be able to distinguish Christianity from substitutions and errors, must understand church rules and laws.
A priest can only be one for whom everything around him is not subordinates, not serfs, not the crowd, not the means of profit. For a priest, Christians are brothers and sisters in Christ, and other people are the same creatures of God, loved by the Creator, like himself. A priest must be able to trust people, have compassion and mercy. A shepherd who destroys people, cripples their lives, robs them, cannot continue his priestly ministry.
A priest can become either a celibate (who did not have a wife and did not cohabit with a woman) or a married one - the husband of one and only wife. The marital status of a priest cannot change. Orthodox Christians insist that marriage and family are not only part of earthly life. Christian marriage has an eternal dimension. After death, spouses remain spouses in their love for each other and for God. It is shepherds who are called upon to set an example of such a marriage, at least through monogamy. The priest is called to lead a good family life, to be a loving and caring husband and father, which should be visible in his wife and children.
The reasons for banning priests are primarily related to violation of the above rules. Usually, the clergy learns about the inappropriate behavior of pastors from complaints from parishioners. It is clear that a ban on ministry should follow in the case of adultery, participation in some crime, bribery, theft, violence, murder, etc. If a priest has lost his faith or preaches a false non-Christian teaching (for example, he teaches that the Lord Jesus Christ is not God, but only a creation of God), he cannot remain a priest. The same if the priest divorced or, being single, got married. As far as I understand, the largest number of priest bans occur for “family” reasons.
Often prohibitions are pronounced for written or unwritten disciplinary reasons, which can generally be described as disobedience to the clergy (bishop). But, as a rule, such prohibitions are temporary. To be honest, this is a separate, complex and by no means unambiguous topic that mostly concerns the intra-church environment. It is determined by the above-mentioned balance of responsibilities, rights and obligations. If it turns out that all responsibilities are placed on the priest and he has no rights, then the ban can be issued for any reason and at any time.
Six priests from the circle of Schemamonk Sergius were banned from serving until the decision of the church court
The Ekaterinburg diocese temporarily prohibited six clergy from holding sacred services at the Sredneuralsky convent in the Sverdlovsk region, whose confessor is Schemamonk Sergius (Romanov), who was previously deprived of the rank of schema-abbot.
On July 6, Priest Sergius Berestov, Hieromonk John (Ivanov), Hieromonk Alexy (Istomin), Hieromonk German (Lazarev), Hieromonk Orest (Platonov) and Hieromonk Pavel (Timofeev) were banned from serving, the diocese told URA.ru. The ban will be in effect up to the clarification of the degree of their guilt and responsibility, which will be established by the church court
The Ekaterinburg diocese has temporarily prohibited six clergy from holding sacred services at the Sredneuralsky convent in the Sverdlovsk region, whose confessor is schemamonk Sergius (Romanov), who was previously deprived of the rank of schema-abbot.
On July 6, Priest Sergius Berestov, Hieromonk John (Ivanov), Hieromonk Alexy (Istomin), Hieromonk German (Lazarev), Hieromonk Orest (Platonov) and Hieromonk Pavel (Timofeev) were banned from serving, the diocese told URA.ru. The ban will be in effect up to the clarification of the degree of their guilt and responsibility, which will be established by the church court.
“The clergy, who are now temporarily prohibited from serving, were repeatedly warned about the possible consequences of performing joint services with Schema-Abbot Sergius, who was also prohibited from performing priestly services,” the diocese emphasized, recalling that all church sacraments performed by the confessor of the monastery during the period of the ban were are “void and without grace.”
As sectologist Alexander Dvorkin stated in an interview with 66.RU, if priests continue to serve after the ban by the diocesan authorities, this will no longer be considered a liturgy, but will be perceived as a staging. In addition, Dvorkin allows for the dissolution of the monastery after the end of the scandal.
In the spring, a video recording of a speech by Schema-Hegumen Sergius was published on the Internet, where he called the coronavirus pandemic a myth and called for disobedience to church leadership and authorities. Among other things, Father Sergius cursed those who close churches during the pandemic and warned about the creation of an “electronic Satanic camp” in which they allegedly want to place Russians. Father Sergius also said that citizens are “lawlessly put into self-isolation” and deprived of “freedom and work.”
Then another video recording of the schema-abbot’s speech appeared, where he calls for the opening of churches and talks about the threat of microchipping, which would supposedly be fatal for most. Subsequently, he also stated that Patriarch Kirill and two metropolitans should resign, and advised “writing to all church courts” to bring them to justice.
In another video, Sergius spoke unflatteringly about the Russian Orthodox Church: the media even reported that he called the Russian Orthodox Church the main enemy of Russia. Followers of Father Sergius said that his words about the enemy of Russia were taken out of context, and clarified that the Russian Orthodox Church, according to the schema-abbot, is the main enemy “for the enemies of our country.” “We need to figure out who our enemy is,” said one of Sergius’s supporters.
In one of the videos, Sergius urged not to vote for amendments to the Constitution. According to him, through these amendments the slave-holding power will be “legalized.” The video with the last call was removed from the Internet by the monk’s colleague at the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office.
The Center for Combating Extremism of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Sverdlovsk Region saw signs of an administrative offense in the actions of the schema-abbot. He was charged with an administrative offense under Part 9 of Article 13.15 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation (distribution in the media, as well as in information and telecommunication networks, of deliberately unreliable socially significant information under the guise of reliable messages). Under this article, the priest faced a fine of 30 to 100 thousand rubles.
On July 7, the Magistrate in the Verkhnepyshminsky district of the Sverdlovsk region found the schema-monk guilty of distributing fakes on the Internet under the guise of reliable information, fining him 90 thousand rubles.
The Ekaterinburg diocese first forbade the schema-abbot to preach and speak publicly. For violating this prohibition, he was banned from ministry. On July 3, the diocesan court found him guilty of violating monastic vows and the priestly oath and defrocked him.
Nevertheless, the disgraced priest released another video in which he demanded that Russian President Vladimir Putin resign and transfer it to him, threatening otherwise to start a “full-scale spiritual war.” “In three days I will restore order in Russia,” Sergius said, calling the President and Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Kirill hidden enemies of Russia. According to him, they led the country to open fight against God, closing of churches and misanthropy, while Russia is ruled by “Chabadniks led by Berel Lazar.” The Moscow Patriarchate called Father Sergius’ statement inadequate.
Reasons for leaving priests
First of all, I would remember about God, because he is Alive and Real. It is quite possible that the ordination (ordination) to the priesthood occurred contrary to the will of God and the priest was unable to carry out his ministry and broke down. Or maybe God, if he realized that the shepherd would harm himself or his neighbors, cooled his heart and pushed him to leave the priesthood, so that by leading an ordinary life, but worthy of a Christian, the former priest would preserve his soul and health and the souls and health of his flock. In this context, I do not understand the generally negative attitude in the church environment towards the departed. In my opinion, if a former priest’s life has developed in a new capacity and he has found peace and health, one should only rejoice at this.
If we talk about church life, then the reasons for independent leaving mostly lie in the already mentioned imbalance of responsibility. Although, there are also cases of unbridled zeal and jealousy of a priest, which, like fire in the first years, burns out his soul, leaving an emptiness. In practice, all this is expressed in fatigue, apathy, burnout, depression, breakdown, loss of faith, embitterment, etc. All these conditions are familiar to priests no less than to each of us. It happens that neither bishops nor communities (parishes) even think about the fact that the well-being of the life of the priest and his family equally depends on them.
It is clear that the priest himself can commit evil or sin by succumbing to temptations. If his conscience is alive, then it will not give peace, which quite possibly will lead to depression or insensibility, or emptiness and, ultimately, to leaving. By the way, a similar state occurs if the priest turns out to be a maximalist and he has a constant, unabated feeling of guilt, destroying his psyche, because he will never be able to embody the high ideal in his life. Pastors are sometimes forced to preach very lofty, beautiful book truths and examples, without completely understanding how all this relates to their personal lives and the lives of their parishioners.
If a priest is ordained at a young, immature age, or soon after the conscious beginning of Christian life, or by agreement from his superiors, then the consequences will not be long in coming. Anyone who has not matured internally, has not become stronger, has not become independent and responsible, will quickly become stressed, tired, and lose sense. The worldview of a 45-year-old husband is sometimes radically different from the outlook on life of a 25-year-old boy. Midlife crisis is a big problem.
Sometimes the loneliness is overwhelming. It's hard to be a "god". You have to keep your distance from parishioners, they go and go with sorrows. But there is no support. Neither the bishop nor the “priest brothers” become fathers, friends, older brothers, or mentors. Sometimes the relationship is very official, hierarchical, army-like. Heartfelt gratitude is rare, there is no encouragement, attention, or care. It happens that the priest’s immediate superior (the bishop or his administrative assistant, the dean), as I once heard, is a “beast-like master” who perceives priests as serfs. Such relationships very quickly even lead to a loss of faith. Is it difficult in such circumstances to give birth to the same depression, apathy, anger, and the desire to give up everything?
It may also be that the authorities demand the implementation of plans for the construction (repair) of the church and contributions to the diocesan treasury or certain employment, but the community called upon to support the priest and his family has not developed, there is no money and sufficient living conditions. So there is no other choice but to leave.
I’ll tell you separately about the priest’s family. This is rarely remembered, especially by bishops, but a priest has a family and he should be enough not only for his flock, but also for his wife and children. Grasp both emotionally and in time. It is important that the family needs to live on something, moreover, the income must be stable. Sometimes the priest is overly “pious”, but I would say he is careless, and the family is insignificant for him. He is not at home, parishioners are tugging at him, the boundaries of family and personal life are blurred. It happens that a bishop moves from place to place once a year. Is it a joke to change everything so often?
It is clear that the wives cannot stand it and leave with their children. Of course, there is the priest’s responsibility here. He is responsible before God for both his family and his children; it’s bad if he didn’t try to build or even defend some kind of balance. But we must not forget about the responsibility of the hierarchy. It happens that some shepherds leave for the sake of their family, but there are few of them. The majority of their wives cannot stand it, and priests left without a family sometimes marry a second time, sacrificing their ministry.
Starring[ | ]
- Robert Hossein as Father Jean Rasteau
- Claude Jade - Francoise Bernardo
- Claude Pieplou as Father Grégoire Ansely
- Pierre Mondy - Paul Lacusade
- Louis Seigner - bishop
- Germaine Delba - Jean's mother
- Georges Odubert - Françoise's father
- Lucienne Legrand as Madame Bernardo
- Michel Vautrin - Françoise's cousin
- Fabrice Mouchel as little Francois
- Guy Di Rigo is the new mayor
Essentially
I would say that today the priesthood is based on almost nothing. I don't believe the pious and unctuous talk that faith in God is enough. It is not for nothing that the Lord endowed people with freedom, willpower, and responsibility. In the old days there were traditions, community, a certain public culture and even government support. After the Soviet past, the priesthood has no external support. Moreover, we see that intra-church supports in the form of community, care, support, correct distribution of responsibilities, rights and obligations have not yet developed. The priesthood rests on the faith, love and willpower of a particular priest - and sometimes this is not enough.
Read about the documentary film “Undressed”, which tells about priests who left the church, here >>
| Yuri Belanovsky, Head of the volunteer movement “Danilovtsy” |
