Tallinn, May. 3, 2007 (CWNews.com) - Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexei II has denounced the removal of a memorial to Communist soldiers from the Estonian capital city of Tallinn, and blamed the Estonian government for the action.
The Russian patriarch said it was "immoral and disrespectful" to remove the monument, and-- more seriously-- the bodies of some soldiers who had been buried on the site. Before the exhumation two clerics-- a Lutheran pastor and an Estonian Orthodox priest-- led prayers for the dead at the site.
Estonian Orthodox Metropolitan Cornelius, who is subordinate to the Moscow patriarch, has proposed that a cross be erected at the site of the former Communist monument.