There is an interesting episode in the Holocaust memoir "Night" by Elie Weisel.
The teeaged protagonist Eliezer is in a concentration camp and has to witness a young child hung. The child is so light that he doesn't die right away. He strangles for about half and hour.
Eliezer hears another Jew say, "Where is God?" Elie answers in his heart--"He is here on the gallows." He means God is dead.
Eliezer had been taught by his religious teacher that according to the Jewish mystical tradition--the Cabala--a person's relationship to God is one of questions. Your relationship with God is based on the depth of your questions. The point is that people of deep faith DO question. God doesn't answer until we die according to this teaching. That is the low point of Eliezer's spiritual journey.
Later, Eliezer sees some boys mistreating their fathers because the fathers have become a burden to the boys' survival. Elieser, who had said he didn't believe in God, prays to God that he won't abandon his father.
Of course, when he doesn't abandon his father, he is not abandoning God either. So he questioned God, but in the end his faith in God made him stick with his father and not abandon him.
I forgot to add to my story about Eliezer that when he saw the innocent child die he was all answers--"God is dead."
He forgot that our relationshop with God is one of questioner. God has the answers.
You are comparing apples and oranges. A teenage boy experiencing the terror of the Holocaust firsthand is different than the head of a large Church looking at a horrific incident from afar. You would think that the latter would have thought through these questions from a historical context--as such, incidents such as the one in Russia shouldn't cause them to question their faith.
It is common to questioning one's faith is common when experiencing horror firsthand. I can understand why someone suffering horribly may, at that moment, question the existence of G-d; the pain of the moment overrides all and blots out reason & rationality. The recent incident of the grief-stricken father of a dead Marine burning the van of the Marines who notified him comes to mind. It is natural that a person in those circumstances would feel hopeless and abandoned, even by G-d. The hard truth is that, as part of G-d's plan, we are all expendable--this is a very tough thing to accept. We just have to trust that there is a higher purpose. While this is not an easy thing, you would expect a seasoned man of G-d to keep this in perspective.