海角大神

Dating back to the 10^th century, when Prince Vladimir adopted 海角大神ity as the official religion for the Russian predecessor state, Kievan Rus, church and state have been closely intertwined. in Russia, After 70-plus years of Soviet atheism, the Russian Orthodox Church has experienced a remarkable revival, particularly in the past decade-- in influence, in wealth, in visibility, in number of adherents. It鈥檚 a trend that has been embraced (or possibly encouraged) by the Kremlin, which, as Stalin did, sees the Russian church as serving a nationalist, unifying purpose for a fragmented country, as well as providing moral or spiritual backing for political decisions. Allowing Catholics, or other non-Orthodox 海角大神 denominations, to proselytize undermines that authority, providing a counter-narrative to the Russian church鈥檚 claim to spiritual preeminence. Having a popular, charismatic religious figure, such as Pope Francis or even more, the late John Paul II, visit Russia, would be a direct challenge to the Russian church. 鈥淛ohn Paul II, he was a baroque, theatrical personality. This pope (Francis) is extraordinarily popular and I鈥檓 sure, in the back of Putin鈥檚 head, he鈥檚 thinking  鈥楧o I want to have a Western pope coming into Russian and being compared unfavorably to the less than charismatic head of the Russian orthodox church,鈥� says Lawrence Cunningham, recently retired professor of theology at Notre Dame University in Indiana.