Defamation Suit by Russian Orthodox Church Pries Dismissed Under Church Autonomy Doctrine

 In Belya v. Kapral, (SD NY, March 31, 2025), a New York federal district court dismissed a defamation suit brought by a former priest in the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. According to the court:

Plaintiff Alexander Belya was once a priest in the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR for short). During his time with ROCOR, Belya led one of the order’s churches in Miami. In 2019, word came down from Moscow that Belya had been elevated to Bishop of Miami, an announcement that came as a surprise to ROCOR’s senior clergy. They hadn’t elected Belya, a necessary step in the elevation of any American bishop. Sensing foul play, they investigated and sent a letter to the Synod—the executive committee of ROCOR’s highest leadership council— about the situation. The letter informed the Synod that Belya’s election never happened and that two prior letters to Moscow, which purported to confirm Belya’s election, were “irregular” and lacked the usual markers of sacred church communications.  

News of the ROCOR letter got out and went viral in the religious press. The reports accused Belya of old-fashioned forgery. With his reputation ruined, Belya is now suing everyone who drafted and signed the ROCOR letter, as well as ROCOR itself. Belya says the letter defamed him by implying that he forged the two earlier letters about his election to bishop, an allegation that the religious press picked up and ran with....

First, putting aside the constitutional issues that dominate the parties’ briefing, Belya’s claims fail on routine state-law grounds. Second, even if Belya’s claims could otherwise proceed, a trial in this case would drag the Court and jury into matters of faith, spiritual doctrine, and internal church governance—precisely what the church-autonomy doctrine is designed to prevent.

[Thanks to Eugene Volokh via Religionlaw for the lead.]

New Ukrainian Law Targets Ukrainian Orthodox Church for Ties to Russia

Forum 18 reports that Ukraine's Law No. 3894-IX (full text in Ukrainian) signed into law on August 24 came into force on Monday. According to the report:

The Law bans the Russian Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate (ROC) for its justification and proactive support of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The Law identifies the ROC as a part of the Russian state and an accomplice, a partner in the war crimes committed by the Russian regime. It also establishes a legal mechanism to liquidate Ukrainian religious organisations which are either affiliated with the ROC, or affiliated with a religious organisation affiliated with the ROC. Affiliations with other Russian religions supporting the Russian aggression against Ukraine are also prohibited. The language of the Law – especially the criteria defining ROC affiliation ¬– makes it clear that the main target is the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC).

New Ukrainian Law Moves Christmas To EDec. 25, Rejecting Russian Orthodox Date

 AP reports that last Friday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a law that moves the date on which Ukraine will celebrate Christmas from January 7 (the date observed by the Russian Orthodox Church) to December 25. According to AP:

The explanatory note attached to the law said its goal is to “abandon the Russian heritage,” including that of “imposing the celebration of Christmas” on Jan. 7. It cited Ukrainians’ “relentless, successful struggle for their identity” and “the desire of all Ukrainians to live their lives with their own traditions, holidays,”....

The law also moves the dates for two other Ukrainian patriotic holidays.

2nd Circuit Denies En Banc Review in Church Autonomy Case

In Belya v. Kapral, (2d Cir., Feb. 8, 2023), the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals denied en banc review of a 3-judge panel decision which held that the collateral order doctrine does not allow appeal of an interlocutory order rejecting a church autonomy defense. The defense was raised in an action in which plaintiff contended that he was defamed when defendants publicly accused him of forging a series of letters regarding his appointment as Bishop of Miami in the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. Judge Lohier, joined by Judges Lee, Robinson, Nathan and Merriam, filed an opinion concurring in the denial of review, saying in part:

[T]he panel’s decision regarding appellate jurisdiction at this stage in the case poses no threat to the church autonomy doctrine, which has thrived without help from the expansion of the collateral order doctrine that the dissent proposes.

Senior Judge Chin filed a statement in support of denying review, saying in part:

While the church autonomy doctrine provides religious associations with "independence in matters of faith and doctrine and in closely linked matters of internal government," ... it does not provide them with "a general immunity from secular laws"...

Judge Cabranes dissented, citing the exceptional importance of the issues involved.

Judge Park, joined by Chief Judge Livingston and Judges Sullivan, Nardini and Menashi, filed a dissenting opinion, saying in part:

This case arises from a minister’s suspension by his church. The church autonomy doctrine, which is rooted in the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment, generally requires courts to stay out of such matters. But the panel decision leaves the church defendants subject to litigation, including discovery and possibly trial, on matters relating to church governance. This imperils the First Amendment rights of religious institutions. Denials of church autonomy defenses should be included in the narrow class of collateral orders that are immediately appealable.

Reuters reports on the decision.

NYT Details Russian Orthodox Patriarch's Important Support For Invasion Of Ukraine

The New York Times yesterday posted a long article detailing the crucial support given by Russian Orthodox Church leader Patriarch Kirill I to Vladimir Putin's actions in Ukraine, saying in part:

Patriarch Kirill I has provided spiritual cover for the invasion of Ukraine, reaping vast resources for his church in return. Now, in an extraordinary step, the E.U. is threatening him with sanctions....

Kirill has called Mr. Putin’s long tenure “a miracle of God,” and has characterized the war as a just defense against liberal conspiracies to infiltrate Ukraine with “gay parades.”...

Kirill has in recent years aspired to expand his church’s influence, pursuing an ideology consistent with Moscow being a “Third Rome,” ... in which Mr. Putin’s Russia would become the spiritual center of the true church after Rome and Constantinople.

It is a grand project that dovetails neatly with — and inspired — Mr. Putin’s mystically tinged imperialism of a “Russkiy Mir,” or a greater Russian world.

Putin's Grievances Include Split In Ukraine's Orthodox Churches

As the world's attention is focused on Russia's claims on Ukraine, there has been less reporting on the tensions between Russian and Ukrainian branches of the Orthodox Church.  This AP background article by Prof. J. Eugene Clay points out:

Two different Orthodox churches claim to be the one true Ukrainian Orthodox Church for the Ukrainian people... The older and larger church is the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate.... A branch of the Russian Orthodox Church, it is under the spiritual authority of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow.....

By contrast, the second, newer church, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, celebrates its independence from Moscow.... In January 2019, [Constantinople] Patriarch Bartholomew formally recognized the Orthodox Church of Ukraine as a separate, independent and equal member of the worldwide communion of Orthodox churches.

Vladimir Putin's widely reported Feb. 21 speech on the Ukraine (full text) included Russian grievances as to this religious split. Putin said in part:

Kiev continues to prepare the destruction of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. This is not an emotional judgement; proof of this can be found in concrete decisions and documents. The Ukrainian authorities have cynically turned the tragedy of the schism into an instrument of state policy. The current authorities do not react to the Ukrainian people’s appeals to abolish the laws that are infringing on believers’ rights. Moreover, new draft laws directed against the clergy and millions of parishioners of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate have been registered in the Verkhovna Rada.

Defamation Action By Bishop In Russian Orthodox Church Survives Motion To Dismiss

In Belya v. Metropolitan Hilarion, (SD NY, May 19, 2021), a New York federal district court refused to dismiss a defamation complaint by a leader of the Russian Orthodox Christian Church in the United States against various other Church leaders who oppose plaintiff's election as Bishop of Miami. According to the court, defendants, in a letter to the church's Synod, made various allegations:

Principally, the letter alleges that the election of Belya never actually occurred; that the results of Belya’s election were fabricated; that the communications from Hilarion to Russia were falsified, either with Hilarion’s knowledge or without; and that the letter from Archbishop Gavriil confirming that Belya had instituted the required changes of practice was likewise falsified. The Olkhovskiy Group requested, in light these allegations and additional unspecified complaints from persons in Florida, that Belya be suspended from clerical functions until the completion of a full investigation. This letter was disseminated among the members of the New York Synod, to parishes, churches, monasteries, and other institutions within ROCOR, as well as more broadly to online media outlets. 

According to Belya, after the September 3 Letter was sent, he was denied all access to Hilarion and was suspended from performing his duties as spiritual leader of his parish....

Rejecting an ecclesiastical abstention argument, the court concluded that the lawsuit "may be resolved by appealing to neutral principles of law. Plaintiff’s claim centers on Defendants’ allegations that he forged the various letters at issue that led to the confirmation of his election as Bishop of Miami."  The court went on:

Belya does not ask this Court to determine whether his election was proper or whether he should be reinstated to his role as Bishop of Miami, and the Court would not consider such a request under the doctrine of ecclesiastical abstention....

Defendants argued that the statements at issue could not be defamatory because they were merely allegations or opinions.  The court concluded, however, that at least one of the challenged statements were assertions of fact, not just allegations.

Lawsuit Filed In Turkey Over Attempt To Give Independence To Ukrainian Orthodox Church

As reported yesterday by UrduPoint, in Turkey, the Patriarchate of Constantinople has taken steps to grant independent status to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, purporting to remove it from the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate, and to remove the anathema from the leaders of two other separatist Orthodox churches in Ukraine.  The Kiev archdiocese was transferred to the Moscow Patriarchate in 1686.  In response, the Turkish Orthodox Church has filed a lawsuit contending that under the Lausanne Peace Treaty of 1923, the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Constantinople is limited to religious services of the Greeks living in Turkey.  According to a follow-up article in UrduPoint, the Russian Orthodox Church charges that the move by Constantinople was engineered by the United States and other Western countries to create tension between Kiev and Moscow. In response to Constinople's action, the Russian Orthodox Church has cancelled its Eucharistic communion with the Constantinople Patriarchate.

Russians Divided Over Return of Famous Cathedral To The Church

AP reports that in St. Petersburg, Russia, competing demonstrations were staged yesterday over the city's decision, announced last month, to return St. Isaac's Cathedral to the Russian Orthodox Church. The Cathedral was seized after Soviets took control in 1917, and was turned into a museum.  It has become one of the city's top tourist attractions. Opponents of the return are concerned that Church tours will begin to focus too much on the Cathedral's religious aspects at the expense of its architectural and cultural importance.

Russia Extends Reach Into France Via New Orthodox Cathedral

A newly-constructed Russian Orthodox Cathedral in the heart of Paris is a symbol of Russian use of religion to extend the country's political reach.  World Policy Blog yesterday reported:

The controversial Sainte-Trinité Russian Orthodox cathedral, set to be consecrated by the Russian Patriarch Kirill in early December, is the result of determined diplomacy by the Kremlin and lobbying of French officials, including François Fillon, the new favorite to win France’s 2017 presidential election....

The $120 million cathedral was financed by the Russian state and backed by President Vladimir Putin. The structure was completed as his country’s relations with France and its NATO allies nosedived over the deployment of Russian firepower in Syria and Ukraine.

While those interventions have come to define Putin’s presidency, the riverside “St Vladimir’s,” as the cathedral has been nicknamed, represents another side of his foreign policy. Also divisive, it is a high water mark in his use of faith and power abroad.

NYT: Russia Uses Orthodox Church To Extend Its Political Influence

The New York Times, in a front-page story posted online yesterday, explores how Russia is using the Russian Orthodox Church to extend the country's political influence.  Here is an excerpt:

While tanks and artillery have been Russia’s weapons of choice to project its power into neighboring Ukraine and Georgia, Mr. Putin has also mobilized faith to expand the country’s reach and influence. A fervent foe of homosexuality and any attempt to put individual rights above those of family, community or nation, the Russian Orthodox Church helps project Russia as the natural ally of all those who pine for a more secure, illiberal world free from the tradition-crushing rush of globalization, multiculturalism and women’s and gay rights.

Thanks to a close alliance between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Kremlin, religion has proved a particularly powerful tool in former Soviet lands like Moldova, where senior priests loyal to the Moscow church hierarchy have campaigned tirelessly to block their country’s integration with the West. Priests in Montenegro, meanwhile have spearheaded efforts to derail their country’s plans to join NATO.

But faith has also helped Mr. Putin amplify Russia’s voice farther west, with the church leading a push into resolutely secular members of the European Union like France.