THE HOLY SYNOD MADE A DECISION ON THE "YEKATERINBURG REMAINS"

THE HOLY SYNOD MADE A DECISION ON THE "YEKATERINBURG REMAINS"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Today, February 26, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, whose session was chaired by His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia, adopted, in particular, a resolution the text of which is reproduced in full below.
HEARD: Report by the Most Reverend Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsy and Kolomna, member of the state commission for the investigation and reburial of the remains of the Russian Emperor Nicholas and members of his family, on the concluding stage in the work of the commission.

After a consideration that followed, RESOLVED:

1. That the information about the decisions made by the state commission on 30 January 1998 be acknowledged.

2. That any assessment of the credibility of scientific and investigatory conclusions, as well as any testimony as to their unshakable or irrefutable nature are beyond the competence of the Church. The scientific and historical responsibility for the conclusions made in the course of the investigation on the "Yekaterinburg remains" lies completely with the Republican Forensic Medicine Center of the Russian Ministry of Health and the Procurator's Office of the Russian Federation.

3. The decision of the state commission to identify the remains discovered near Yekaterinburg as those of the family of Emperor Nicholas II has provoked serious doubts and even conflicts in the Church and society. At the same time, there are reasons to believe that the discovered remains belong to victims of the state that wrestled with God. It is known that many of these victims were martyrs, confessors and passion-bearers whom our Church canonize today when their identity, biography and hagiographic materials have been established. The prolonged procedure of criminological analysis has caused the Yekaterinburg remains to stay without a Christian burial for an inadmissibly long time.

4. In this connection the Holy Synod has spoken in favor of an immediate burial of these remains in a symbolic memorial grave. When all doubts with regard to the "Yekaterinburg remains" have been removed and reasons for confusion and confrontation in society have disappeared, the final decision on the burial grounds should be taken up.

5. That the work carried out by the Most Reverend Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsy and Kolomna on the state commission throughout its term be approved.