Russian Orthodox Patriarch steeped in scandal

[TJ]

Unorthodox behaviour rattles Russian church

The best part, IMO, is about the expensive watch that was attempted to be photoshopped out of a photo on his website. LOL. Christ had no place to lay his head, yet these guys always have palaces and are decked out in expensive jewelry that would make a celebrity on the red carpet blush.

[retroHelen]

As this article points out in the first paragraph:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/8790457/Russian-Orthodox-Church-embroiled-in-corruption-scandal.html

There are questions about the propriety of the country's clerics and their relationship with wealthy donors who believed they were contributing to restoration work.

"In the case of Father Grigoriev, he was shown to own a BMW jeep, a Mercedes jeep, and a Mercedes saloon as well as three flats and a country house. To add insult to injury, a secret camera filmed the priest bragging about his £60,000 Swiss watch, his £12,000 phone, while talking about his love of Italian designer clothes and fine dining. In an indication of how much wealth the priest had amassed, he complained of recently being robbed of the equivalent of £300,000 from his safe...."

....and this is a different priest to the one shown in the doctored photograph who was wearing a Breguet watch worth tens of thousands of dollars.