Russian Church Doesn't Insist To Have All Property Back

The Russian Orthodox Church does not make it a point to have all its property back, said Cyril, Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, in charge of the Moscow Patriarchy Department of External Church Relations, as he held conference with experts of the Russian Academy of Sciences economic branch. The Bolshevist revolution of 1917 robbed the Church of a vast amount of valuables and immovables. To remove that property now from the national economy threatens a social upheaval, which is the last thing the Church desires. The clergy are demanding only a part of pre-revolutionary property through understandings with secular authorities, and will make no claim on present-day hospital, kindergarten and other social welfare premises, reassured Metropolitan Cyril.