Abandoned owl sparks Orthodox crusade and electoral polemics
A Patriarchate priest disputes claims of the bird’s divine origin. The controversy can be contextualised in moves by some quarters to have the Internet shut down because of its interference, also in the political arena.
Moscow (AsiaNews) - A curious scandal is unfolding in Russia, due to a Facebook post by the writer Lora Beloivan in defense of an abandoned owl which she adopted with her husband. The post that has provoked a reaction from the Orthodox Church and polemics in electoral key also with Catholics.
The author is a well-known artist and animalist, founder and director of the first centre in Russia for the protection and rehabilitation of seals. The owl in question is one of the many animals cared for in a centre in the village of Tavrichanka, a village in the far east where Lora and her husband live. In the writer's social messages, a voice and image are often given to these "friends of man".
In the case of the owl "Sova" (which in Russian means "owl"), in addition to the various updates and comments that Lora has posted about the bird, one particularly enthusiastic comment, described its divine origin: the author’s fantastical claim is that from the clay with which God fashioned Adam, He would also have created other animal forms, including the owl. Walking through the Garden of Eden, God and Adam joke about the various beings they meet, giving them their name, and when they get to the owl the first man scolds the creator for his clumsy workmanship, for having crushed his neck in a funny way.
However, the theological-humorous story has irritated some zealous Orthodox Facebook readers, including an authoritative priest of the Moscow Patriarchate who posted about the photo (without publishing his name), expressing his outrage in a rather menacing comment. Accusing Beloivan of "offending the religious sentiments of Christians", the prelate invited her to remove the story from her page, to avoid judicial consequences: "it has come the object of attention of those who supervise the observance of the rules of order public".
The writer immediately removed her "flirtatious" apologue from Facebook, provoking a wave of favourable and contrary comments and, obviously, the sharing of the post by the tens of thousands of readers who had already downloaded it. All this has turned into a violent public discussion on freedom of information and opinion, with rather perplexed and disoriented tones: the divine lineage of the owl, in fact, would seem to contradict the opinions of the most hardened Darwinist atheists, as well as the good Christians and Jews who have built stories and allegories based on Genesis for thousands of years. The same Beloivan explained that she had taken down the page to avoid controversy, and one of the Patriarchate spokesmen, while reprimanding the author for the impertinent expressions, has invited everyone to calm.
The controversy, moreover, fits into a rather tense context of the last few weeks, where proposals to "shut down the Internet" in Russia are multiplying, or at least to defend it from undue interference, especially from the West, but also internal. Another very criticized Facebook page in recent days, for example, was an appeal by the Catholic bishop Klemens Pickel of St. Clement in Saratov, inviting the faithful to "bring their own contribution to the common good in spirit of truth, justice, solidarity and freedom ". The expression, however, taken from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, was read as a Catholic attempt to support Putin's candidacy, increasing participation in the elections that is expected to be rather minor.
The critique of "Catholic interference" in politics was made both by the supporters of the president and by his opponents, for the mere fact of indirectly suggesting people should exercise their vote. The spokesman for the Russian Catholic Bishops Conference, Msgr. Igor Kovalevskij, however, denied that Pickel’s words expressed this specific intention, saying the bishop had simply issued a a generic invitation to national social harmony. At the same time, the decisions of some companies and institutions dependent on the Orthodox Church, such as the famous "Sofrino" factory for the production of candles and sacred vessels, caused a sensation. They have declared the electoral Sunday of March 18 a mandatory working day, with organized transport to polling stations (open specifically for workers); those who refuse, could risk losing their job.
.png)
