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>> The Orthodox Church (and to be fair, the Catholic Church) has been an arm of the Russian government since the beginning of the Cold War.* And if the Russians don’t approve of a church, they close it. <<

Tell that to the 85,000 Orthodox priests that Stalin had killed in a single year. By 1940, there were fewer than 500 Russian churches with an Orthodox pastor.

Yes, by the time that Stalin was done killing MOST of the Russian priests, those that remained were those that were aquiescent to Stalin, to their everlasting infamy. But that half of one percent of survivors are the exception, not the rule, and it is beyond obscene to paint the victims of Stalin’s crimes as the perpetrators.

In fairness, I’m a Catholic, and the fact that the Russian Orthodox Church, being based in a single nation, was capable of being destroyed is a fundamental reason I subscribe to the notion of catholicity over national churches; there is a foundational flaw in the ROC which made it vulnerable. But that doesn’t make what you wrote of those 85,000 martyrs any less horrible; I pray you wrote it out of pure ignorance.

Tell that to the 85,000 Orthodox priests that Stalin had killed in a single year. By 1940, there were fewer than 500 Russian churches with an Orthodox pastor.

I guess you're helping us understand why the partriarch Kirill is a known agent of the KGB?

In fairness, I’m a Catholic, and the fact that the Russian Orthodox Church, being based in a single nation, was capable of being destroyed is a fundamental reason I subscribe to the notion of catholicity over national churches

So how'd you feel about those Catholic priests that were kidnapped in Crimea and threatened?

In the days of the Soviet Union, one could not join the priesthood without approval of the State. Think about that for a minute.

Yes, the Bolsheviks killed priests who opposed them. So what? The ones who remained, and joined, were compromised. And funneled information to the KGB.