Originally from Sardinia, he arrived in Russia in 1985. 60-year-old Ioan Guaita is a hieromonk (ordained priest in Orthodox churches) of St. Cosmas and Damian Church in central Moscow.
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LE FIGARO: How have you seen the development of the Orthodox Church since 1985?
Ioan GUAITA: It wasn’t really an underground church then, but it was a church that was persecuted and heavily restricted by the state until the late 1980s. Then the state, under Gorbachev, began to give more and more freedom to the church. . And finally, now we are at a point where not only the state gives complete freedom to the Church, but even when some would like to use the church as a national symbol. Communism, which paradoxically embodied the national ideology, gave way to a period when there is no longer a national idea. But Russians are used to living with a national idea, which is not the case with all nations…
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Source: Le Figaro
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.