Why Is France Fear-Mongering About the Orthodox Church?

Church of the Holy Mother of God of Kazan. Source: Wikimedia Commons

STOCKHOLM — By now, many of you will have come across a bizarre article called “The Church By the Airport”. It’s an “investigation” by France24, a state-owned media company. The subject of the investigation is the Church of the Holy Mother of God of Kazan, a Russian Orthodox parish in the Swedish town of Vasteras.

France24 is worried because Holy Mother of God is located next to the Stockholm-Vasteras Airport. After all, “VST is not just any airport. It hosts Sweden’s third-largest runway and was, until it was decommissioned in 1983, a base for the Swedish Air Force.” Now, that’s very impressive. But what possible interest could Russia have in Sweden’s third-largest runaway? What strategic intelligence could Russia acquire by setting up shop next to a Swedish Air Force base that has been defunct for over four decades?

France24 doesn’t even bother to speculate. It just keeps making ominous noises. For instance, the report goes on to say: “It’s not just the church’s proximity to the airport that worries security experts. It’s also its closeness to the central city of Vasteras, a 1.5-hours drive east of the capital Stockholm.” France24 interviewed a “security expert” named Patrick Oksanen, who “points to the fact that Vasteras sits on the edge of Lake Malaren—a strategically sensitive corridor that connects the Swedish heartland with the Baltic Sea—and that several key bridges cross the important waterway here.”

The report then makes this observation:

Oksanen also notes that Sweden’s key east-west highway, the E18, runs through the city. The highway links Stockholm with Norway, and cuts through a number of important sites, including the Swedish Army’s Command and Control Regiment in Enkoping, which is a crucial point for military communication. From the church, the E18 can be reached in five minutes

But so what? What exactly is France24 worried about? Do they think Russia is going to stage an invasion from the Church of the Holy Mother of God of Kazan? Just for a moment, let’s pretend this isn’t completely ridiculous. Maybe France24 could answer a few logistical questions, like:

• How many soldiers could Russia hide on the parish grounds?
• How did they sneak into the country undetected?
• What is their target or objective?
• If activated, how much damage could they do before the Swedish regiment in Enkoping responds?

Having failed to explain what possible threat this little church could pose to anyone, France 24 goes on to make a series of hilarious observations about the parish. For instance, it spoke to a neighbor, who says the Church “doesn’t seem to host many church activities apart from the two weekly services.” Of course, this is not uncommon in the Orthodox Church. For instance, many parishes only have vespers on Wednesday evenings and the Divine Liturgy on Sunday morning. If France24 thinks this is a red flag, it shows how little they understand Orthodoxy.

France24 also makes this laughable claim about the church’s priest:

Not much is known about 68-year-old [Pavel] Makarenko before he moved to Sweden in 1990, where he has since led a discreet life with his wife and daughter in a Stockholm suburb. At the very start of the church project, Makarenko had no problem speaking to the media, but after facing questions over the church’s financing, the building contractor’s links to organized crime, and his own alleged contacts with Russian intelligence services, he started to keep a low profile. In the past few years, he has only been caught on camera a handful of times, and never voluntarily.

Seeing as Makarenko hasn’t been sent to jail and/or deported, it can be assumed that he has been found guilty of no crimes—espionage, treason, criminal organization, etc. So, what seems to have transpired is this: At first, Fr. Pavel was quite open and friendly. Then the media harassed him over baseless claims that he’s a spy and a mobster. And so, before long, he became wary of the media. Does this really sound suspicious to anyone?

The report also says that the Church’s construction is mysterious because “Vasteras, a city of around 160,000, barely housed a sizable Russian population.” In other words, Vasteras does house a sizeable Russian population—many if not most of whom would be Russian Orthodox. So, what’s more likely: that the Church was built to serve the local Russian population, or that it’s some kind of FSB front?

France24 admits that there are only five Russian Orthodox churches in Sweden serving 2,000 Russian Orthodox Christians. That’s about 400 souls per church. As anyone familiar with Orthodoxy will know, that’s a gigantic number. The growing number of parishes is proportional to the growing number of believers. Really, it sounds like Sweden needs more Russian Orthodox parishes, not fewer.

It should be obvious that the Church of the Holy Mother of God of Kazan poses no threat to anyone. This isn’t an “investigation”: it’s pure propaganda. And it’s being peddled by an organ of the French government.

Most Western governments are semi-officially committed to demonizing the Russian Orthodox Church. And, sure enough, despite zero evidence that Holy Mother of God poses any threat to anyone, the local government of Vasteras is moving to take over the parish’s grounds and building. 

Naturally, this is part and parcel with Ukraine’s efforts to outlaw and destroy the Ukrainian Orthodox Church due to its alleged ties to the Moscow Patriarchate. 

Millions of Orthodox Christians face persecution at the hands of NATO and NATO-aligned governments. I wonder how we’ll explain this to our children. 

God help us.

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