Gay Russian priest who fled to Holland after coming out claims clergy have sex to get promotions

A gay, Russian former priest who fled to Holland after coming out has claimed that homophobic clergy sleep with their superiors for promotions.

Alexander Usatov was a Russian orthodox priest in the Rostov and Novocherkassk diocese until he quit his position around a year ago.

At the time he wrote an opinion piece for Snob, explaining that he had lost his faith, and that the “belief in an anthropomorphic heavenly being, who is angry and takes revenge on people” had become “alien and unpleasant” to him.

But he has now revealed that he was forced to leave the church, and even fled the country, because he is gay and was being harassed and bullied by colleagues and superiors.

This week he wrote another piece published by Snob, in which he said that he fled to the Netherlands with the help of LGBT+ activists in the EU.

The former priest wrote: “I am gay and have never felt safe in the Russian orthodox church, and in recent years I have become the object of persecution by the Metropolitan and his entourage, who knew about my orientation.”

He said he had come out to Metropolitan Mercurius, whose secular name is Igor Ivanov, the head of the Rostov and Novocherkassk diocese, which he soon came to “regret”.

Usatov claimed that it was common for priests in the Russian orthodox church to sleep with higher-ranking church leaders for promotion.

He wrote: “Gays in the Russian orthodox church are in a dual situation.

“On the one hand, everyone knows about the existence of the gay lobby and the opportunity to make an easy career after going through the bishop’s bed.

“On the other hand, the most active parishioners of the church are ardent homophobes, and by relying on them, the church is building out of itself a stronghold of traditional sexual morality.”

Source: PinkNews