To the Lower Regions

Anathema. Anathema. Anathema. To Vladimir Lenin and to all other persecutors of the Christian church, who have raised their hands against the servants of God, who desecrated holy places and destroyed God's temples and tortured believers.

With these words, chanted by its priests in parish churches throughout the world, the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia* has just imposed the ultimate ecclesiastical penalty on the father of the Russian Revolution. More than 50 years after the bloody revolt that he led, Lenin was thus excommunicated from the faith in which he was baptized, and consigned to the lower regions of hell. The decision was taken by a synod of bishops of the expatriate church, who were incensed by the fact that UNESCO plans to observe the centennial of Lenin's birth and recognize him as "a great humanist."

*Not to be confused with the Russian Exarchate in the U.S., or the Russian Orthodox Metropolia--which last week won autocephalous (self-governing) status in an agreement with the Patriarchate of Moscow and will be called the Orthodox Church in America.

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