ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE

Exarchate of Parishes of Russian
Tradition in Western Europe

DECLARATION BY THE COUNCIL OF THE ARCHDIOCESE regarding the situation in Nice, June 2008

The Council of the Archdiocese has studied the defamatory statements that have recently appeared concerning the leadership of the Parish at Nice. It observes with regret that as the date approaches for the trial relating to the title of ownership of the Cathedral of St Nicholas at Nice, personal – and false – attacks against the rector of the cathedral and the elected officers of the parish are proliferating on the part of certain people, generally outside the parish. These are being spread through the press and on internet websites closely linked to the Patriarchate of Moscow and to the Russian Federation, which is a party in the case.

Faithful to the line always followed by its ruling bishops, in the past as well as today, which consists in abstaining from vain disputes, the Council of the Archdiocese does not intend to enter here into polemic with its detractors, whoever they be, but it does emphatically denounce in the most vigorous terms this base campaign of insinuation and lies aimed at destabilising the parish of Nice and the whole diocese.

Such behaviour is unworthy, deplorable and inadmissible. It has personal implications for the Christian conscience of those who resort to it, both before the judgement of God and before the judgement of human beings. It is not acceptable that lying and slander should be used in the Church.

The Council of the Archdiocese also emphatically expresses its total support for the rector of the Cathedral of St Nicholas, Archpriest Jean Gueit, for the important work he has achieved towards renewal of the life of the parish of Nice, both spiritually and pastorally, as well as on the level of management and administration.

Background to the Declaration by the Council of the Archdiocese

In February 2006, a bailiff (huissier) of the Nice court, accompanied by representatives of the Consulate of the Russian Federation in Nice, came to the cathedral to implement the local Court’s ruling that an inventory of the contents and property of the Cathedral be made on behalf of the Russian Federation. Permission to enter the Cathedral, property of the local parish and registered as such under French law, was refused and in April the higher court denied the right of the Russian Federation to make this inventory. In fact, the French Ministry of Culture had just previously completed a very full inventory of the icons, wall paintings and other items in the building as part of the registration of the Cathedral as a historical monument.

The Russian Federation, through an indirect approach by their Ambassador in Paris, then began a lawsuit in the High Court in Nice in an attempt to claim the title of the land on which the Cathedral of St Nicholas is built. The case is thus now in the hands of the French legal system. The Cathedral community continued to insist on its rights, and to try to continue liturgical celebrations in a calm manner.