Bishop Diomid's popularity is similar to Herostratos fame, head the Russian Church Publishing House believes

11 July 2008, 12:32

Moscow, July 11, Interfax - Head the Moscow Patriarchate Publishing Council Archpriest Vladimir Silovyev compared Bishop Diomid of Chukotka to Herostratos - a Greek who set fire to one of the world's wonders the temple of Artemis of Ephesus in order that his name might be perpetuated.

"It's enough to say that the patriarch is heretic because he worshipped (Christ's - IF) crown of thorns, a greatest Christian shrine in Notre Dame, and you'll be the talk of the town. Such a Herostratos fame is very revealing when Russian media talk so much about it," Fr. Vladimir said at an Interfax press conference.

Thus, he recalled Bishop Diomid's open letter, where the latter had criticized Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia for a prayer service before the Savior's crown of thorns kept in the Notre Dame de Paris.

Fr. Vladimir regrets that today mass media almost do not pay attention to life in monasteries, Christian heroism and efforts of many people who are restoring them. Meanwhile, "once a small group buried themselves in a dig out in the Penza Region, it was enough for the whole country to start talking about them."

He also stressed that Bishop Diomid was send to the Chukotka Diocese, which was one of the newest and smallest dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church "to work and pray heroically."

"But as we know, hard work is a great, difficult task and a prayer is the most complicated thing in the world. It's much easier to deny the first and the latter and to state something very strange instead, as Bishop Diomid did," Fr. Vladimir noted.

According to him, the Chukotka hierarch has become "a schismatic spotlighted by all mass media" instead of a good ascetic.

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