The Budapest scandal which broke on 5 July 2024, revealed by a half-Russian, half-Japanese teenager, led to the downfall of Metr Hilarion (Alfeyev). Regardless of whether the Metropolitan himself was set up or is wholly guilty, it is clear that the young man involved in this blackmail case and the woman behind him are thieves and criminals. However, it is equally clear that the Metropolitan led a hypocritical life quite unworthy of a supposed monk, regardless of the details. None of this came as a surprise to us. Plenty of other careerists of his rank, and not only in Moscow, are guilty of the same, but they have not been entrapped or caught out. Their turn will come.

The case is now being tried in Moscow by three very young Metropolitans and one equally young Archbishop (my sister-in-law literally used to change his nappies when he was in summer camp). All of them are younger even than Metr Hilarion. One of them, the very young Metr Antony (Sevryuk), was sent to Japan this spring in order to investigate the family of the criminal involved in the case. Some have suggested that this proves that the whole case was a set-up. That is only a speculation. There is no proof. Whatever the case, it seems highly likely  that Metr Hilarion will be defrocked. There is however one way out for him, the way taken by so many others in Moscow, who also opposed the conflict in the Ukraine.

This would be for him to join the Patriarchate of Constantinople. On the one hand, this seems highly unlikely, as Metr Hilarion has time and again condemned that Patriarchate for its ignoble and uncanonical actions in the Ukraine. Surely Constantinople would not want him and he would definitely not want Constantinople? It would all seem like a betrayal. However, if the USA intervened on his behalf…’Metr Hilarion of the Slavic Exarchate of Western Europe of the Oecumenical Patriarchate’. It does have a ring to it…. Constantinople is desperate to control the Diaspora and Metr Hilarion is pro-Catholic. And for the Americans there is the question of the successor to the increasingly frail Patriarch Kyrill (and Patriarch Bartholomew). Here the CIA is deeply involved, as usual… However unlikely, nothing is impossible with the possibility of repentance.