(OSV News) — Hungarian Catholics have reacted warily to the suspension of a top Russian Orthodox prelate in Europe, Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Budapest and Hungary, who faces demotion and disgrace amid accusations of sexual and financial misconduct.
“This is a personal matter, we shouldn’t get mixed up with politics — we should pray instead for decisions which will help our churches,” said Father Ákos Makláry, president of Hungary’s Association of Christian Intellectuals. “We can’t be sure about the details of this case, and shouldn’t allow it to damage Catholic-Orthodox ties, which have always been strong here.”
The Greek Catholic priest spoke after the Russian Orthodox church’s governing synod confirmed it had “temporarily” suspended Metropolitan Hilarion from its Budapest-Hungarian diocese and ended his chairmanship of two key church committees.
In an OSV News interview, Father Makláry said he doubted Hilarion could claim any “special impact on national life” in Hungary, despite heading the Russian church’s regional activities, adding that the Catholic Church had not officially commented on the controversy around him.
Meanwhile, the editor of Hungary’s Catholic Vigilia monthly told OSV News the country’s Christian communities and media had been “completely silent” about the Metropolitan’s case.
“Hungary’s official policy is quite benevolent towards Russia, and the churches here are usually very loyal to the government — so publicizing problems in the Russian church can be understood as being hostile towards Russia, and thus also towards the government,” explained Tibor Görföl.
“Christianity in Hungary is fundamentally defensive and attentive only to assaults against Christianity — all problems related to church authorities are regarded as fueling further criticism, so are not talked about,” Görföl said.
Metropolitan Hilarion, now 58, was widely seen as a likely successor to Russia’s Orthodox patriarch, Kirill, while heading his church’s powerful external relations department from 2009. In June 2022, however, four months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he was suddenly reassigned to Hungary — considered provincial for Russian top clerics, yet a European Union country known for its close ties with Russia.
The Metropolitan was quoted by the TASS news agency as telling his Moscow congregation he had not “fit into” the “current socio-political situation,” adding it was better to have ended up “on the side of the road,” rather than driving “into a ditch.”
Some media speculated that his transfer had been coordinated with Russian intelligence to provide the Moscow Patriarchate with a base for influencing Western governments and churches, assisted by premier Viktor Orban’s government, which permitted a substantial expansion in Russian embassy staff at the same time.
In his OSV News interview, however, Görföl said he believed Hilarion had not been “visible enough” to act as a “mediator” with Western institutions.
“The two narratives heard unofficially here were that he had either faced opposition inside the Russian church for opposing the war, or that he had left Russia to prepare to succeed Patriarch Kirill,” said the editor of Vigilia, founded in 1935 as a Catholic faith and culture journal.
“But there’s only a small Orthodox minority in Hungary, and no real interest in Orthodoxy here. As a representative of the Russian church, he was basically unknown and invisible,” Görföl told OSV News.
Accusations against the Metropolitan surfaced in a lengthy July 5 feature in the Latvia-based Russian daily, Novaya Gazeta Europa, which said he had been accused of sexual harassment by Georgy Suzuki, a 21-year-old Japanese-Russian subdeacon, who fled to Tokyo in January, taking cash and valuables from Metropolitan Hilarion’s residence, as well as photographs and videos of the Metropolitan’s lavish lifestyle.
Novaya Gazeta Europa said Suzuki had described yachting and skiing trips, as well as parties for Russian oligarchs and Hungarian officials at Metropolitan Hilarion’s 2-million euro mansion at Vácduka, near Budapest, which included a swimming pool, private gym, wine cellar and six-car garage.
The subdeacon related how the Metropolitan had lain naked next to him while he was in bed, and threatened him when he “expressed discomfort.” He also didn’t allege that sexual intercourse occurred.
The paper said Metropolitan Hilarion had also boasted of using church donations for his private needs and said Hilarion had been given a Hungarian passport just three months after arriving in Budapest, enabling him to travel freely, protected from international sanctions.
In subsequent correspondence with Suzuki’s mother, the Metropolitan had offered a financial settlement as “testimony of sincere regret for all mistakes made,” Novaya Gazeta Europa said, filing theft and defamation charges when the offer was rejected.
In a July 9 TASS news agency statement, the Budapest diocese’s press officer, Archpriest Nikolai Kim, condemned Suzuki’s “illegal and immoral” conduct, dismissing his harassment claims as “incoherent and unconvincing.”
Interviewed July 10 by Russia’s RIA Novosti agency, Metropolitan Hilarion said he would challenge the subdeacon’s accusations in court, adding that an investigation was underway against the subdeacon’s mother for attempting to extort money from him.
Meanwhile, Orthodox clergy from the Hungarian diocese defended the Metropolitan in a July 10 open letter, expressing “deep indignation at the dirty slanderous campaign launched against him by some media outlets.”
However, in its July 25 ruling the Russian synod said it had now appointed a commission to study “the situation in the Budapest-Hungarian diocese,” which has a cathedral and two churches in the Hungarian capital and parishes in other cities.
It added that it had handed “temporary” administration to the Russian church’s patriarchal exarch of Western Europe, Metropolitan Nestor (Sirotenko) of Korsun, and replaced Hilarion as chairman of its Synodal Biblical-Theological Commission and Inter-Council Presence Commission.
Born in Moscow and educated at Oxford University, Metropolitan Hilarion backed a 2022 ban on “LGBT propaganda” in Russia and was a leading critic of the pope’s December 2023 declaration, Fiducia Supplicans, allowing Catholic priests to bless same-sex couples.
In a follow-up July 25 article, Novaya Gazeta Europa said the accusations against a “once high-flying bishop” had “rocked Russia’s religious establishment to the core,” adding that claims of sexual misconduct were “widespread and well-known” within the Russian church, but “rarely ever investigated.”
The daily switched operations from Moscow to Riga following Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, a year after its chief editor, Dmitry Muratov, won the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize.
It said Hilarion, who is wanted for war crimes in Ukraine, had been intended to act “as a liaison between the Russian Orthodox church and the West” while in Budapest, adding that his unusually rapid grant of Hungarian citizenship reflected “intervention from the highest levels of Hungarian officialdom.”
However, this was questioned by Görföl, the Vigilia editor, who said he doubted Hilarion, who held talks with Pope Francis during his April 2023 Budapest visit, had boasted a “significant enough presence” to influence Western opinion.
“The greatest problem here is that there’s no ecclesial public sphere in Hungary — no debates, no discussions and no opinions. That’s why there’s been little if any reaction to these events.”
A press official at the Hungarian bishops’ conference, who declined to be named, told OSV News Metropolitan Hilarion’s fall from grace was a “political matter,” to be dealt with by Russian Orthodox leaders.
Jonathan Luxmoore writes for OSV News from Oxford, England.
