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Pope Benedict XVI reportedly supported the Russian Orthodox Church’s tough stance against the punk band Pussy Riot who were controversially jailed for two years after staging an anti-Vladimir Putin protest in a Moscow cathedral, The Independent of London reported.
The pope’s position was announced in comments posted on the website of Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, following a meeting at the Vatican on Tuesday between the pople and Kirill’s external affairs representative.
The Turkish Weekly quoted the Russian Church: “Pope Benedict XVI has expressed solidarity with the Russian Orthodox Church’s position on the issue and perplexity over the reaction of a number of media to these events.”
The post on the site said the pope also expressed his “words of support to the Russian Church in connection with the blasphemous act in the Christ the Savior Cathedral in February.”
The report said that in September, a man poured ink on an icon in the central Moscow cathedral. Earlier, vandals sawed down crosses in three Russian regions. In March a man chopped 38 icons in the Vologda Region with an ax. The events followed February’s “punk prayer” by the Pussy Riot punk band in the Christ the Savior Cathedral.
An edited clip of Pussy Riot’s protest in late February posted online showed the group alternately high-kicking near the entrance to the altar of the Christ the Savior Cathedral, accompanying the “Holy S**t” song urging the Virgin Mary to “drive [Vladimir] Putin out.”
The song contained words insulting to Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and to believers, the report added.
Three band members were found guilty of hooliganism aimed at inciting religious hatred and jailed for two years each on August 17. The prison term for one of them was later replaced with a suspended sentence.
The trial and sentences attracted unprecedented media attention and international criticism, which Moscow dismissed as “groundless” saying the band’s act was not an issue of artistic performance but was “insulting to millions of Orthodox [Christian] believers.”
The band said their performance was not aimed at insulting believers’ feelings.
The Independent newspaper said the pope’s spokesman, Fr. Federico Lombardi, would not confirm the comments, saying “I have nothing to say. This was reported on the site of the Russian Patriarch and it was about a meeting I was not privy to. I have no intention of disturbing the pope to ask him about it.”
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