Russian Church wants new internet policy for priests

The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) wants more control over its priests. It should be clear whether such a priest is speaking on social media on behalf of himself or the Church, Evfimy Lukhovitsky stated. He is the chairman of the Synodal Missionary Department. "We have repeatedly received requests somehow to regulate the activities of clergy on social networks", Mr. Lukhovitsky told the Russian press agency Tass.

The ROC official states that often people who see a clergyman on YouTube or other services a priori perceive him as an official representative of the Church. However, at the same time, "it turns out that sometimes some priests become bloggers without the blessing of the church leadership."

How the ROC plans to create the distinction between personal opinions and Church views of a priest on the internet is not yet known. Tass writes about how the ROC already has a certification system for Orthodox literature. Suppose a publisher expects to distribute his book through a church retail network. In that case, it must receive the stamp of the Publishing Council of the Russian Orthodox Church. However, that doesn't seem easy to do on the World Wide Web.

Earlier, the head of the ROC, Patriarch Kirill, said in a meeting with various clergy bloggers that they should not forget that the main vocation of a priest is not the Internet, but the salvation of human souls. "The pastoral service of a clergy representative should not suffer as a result of his activities in the information space."