Metropolitan Theophanes criticized authorities for having refused to transfer Saint Isaac Cathedral to the ownership of the Church

February19, 2016. The refusal of the authorities to deliver Saint Isaac Cathedral  (Saint-Petersburg, Russia) to the Russian Orthodox Church was subject to criticism by Metropolitan of Kazan and Tatarstan Theophanes, Interfax reports.

“The opponents of the delivery of this site to the Church seem to have forgotten that this highly valuable building was constructed with the contributions and financial donations of believers and not of the museum staff. In 1930s parallel to the massacre of believers by the revolutionary government it was confiscated and converted into an antireligious museum. What else is this if not a robbery?” – sad the metropolitan at UNESCO Forum on management of world heritage religious sites.

In his discourse he calls for taking into consideration the experts’ arguments on the cathedral’s state of preservation but also for keeping in mind the historical justice which consists in “returning to the Church it’s seized property regardless any artificial conditions. The believers have the truth on their side in this argument as they can not be uninvited guests there where they used to be hosts throughout the centuries” metropolitan Theophanes emphasized.

He expressed his gratitude to the Russian museum association for preservation of the cathedral telling that the conversion of it into a museum was “much better than its destruction by the godless government or conversion of it into a prison or stable.”

However, according to him “no considerations of cultural value may constitute a barrier for resuming the religious life in the church and the monastery,” as “the material may not prevail over the spiritual and the freedom of religion may not become a hostage of some technical norms regulating the preservation status of the site”.

The metropolitan called for finding the balance between “the evident need for physical protection of religious sites” and the reservation for the believers of the possibility to exercise their religious freedom, which is “inconceivable without the free use of churches and monasteries for their intended purpose, i. e. for the fervent prayer to the Creator”.

In august 2015 it became known that the Church asked Smolny museum to transfer to it the ownership of the Saint Isaac’s Cathedral. Earlier the state memorial museum transferred to the Church the homonymous Smolny and St. Sampson cathedrals. Interfax was informed that the Church has also made a similar demand for the church of the Savior on Blood (the fourth cathedral of the memorial museum). Later Smolny refused to transfer the cathedral of Saint Isaak.