Moscow (AsiaNews) – Orthodox, Catholics, Muslims and Jews in Russia will pray for Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin, the former and first president of the Russian Federation after the collapse of the Soviet Union, who passed away yesterday following heart failure. In expressing their condolences, the leaders of the country’s various religious denominations remember him as the first head of state to see the country’s spiritual revival after 70 years of state-sponsored atheism.
Moscow Patriarch Aleksej II stressed “Yeltsin’s commitment to good relations between the state and the Russian Orthodox Church.”
According to Fr Mikhail Dudko, secretary of the Public Relations Department in the Moscow Patriarchate, Yeltsin offered the possibility to bear witness to the Christian faith in a secularised world.”
In a message of condolences on the diocese’s website, Mgr Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, archbishop of Our Mother of God diocese, said that the “death of a political figure like Yeltsin is cause for reflection about his presidency (1991-1999). The Yeltsin era was for Russia’s Catholics a time when they were able to rebuild their ecclesiastical hierarchy, to bet back their churches, a time of spiritual renaissance. The Yeltsin era created the necessary political, social and legal conditions for the normalisation of pastoral care for the faithful and the restoration of religious life for various confessions. When he met John Paul II he invited the Pope to come to Russia.”
The Catholic prelate added that in “these days of sorrow for his family and friends, prayers will be said in churches and chapels in memory of the servant of God, Boris. Catholics will join these prayers with a firm hope that the Merciful God will welcome the dearly departed into His Kingdom.”
Russia’s chief rabbi and the chairman of Russia’s Mufti Council also offered their condolences and joined the prayers.
The funeral of the former Russian president, predecessor to the current President Vladimir Putin, will tale place tomorrow in Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral.
He will be buried in Novodevichy Cemetery, Moscow’s most famous cemetery.
