Question by Cristina C: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and the Catholic Church?
Could anyone tell me whether Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn had any links to the Catholic Church, or at least to some of her teachings?
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Answer by Pull My Finger, CIB
I don’t know enough about him to answer this question. If he did, I doubt it would have been the Roman Catholic church — most likely he borrowed his ideas of Christianity from the Russian Orthodox church. That’s a branch of Catholicism. Why do you ask?
*Edit* — When I said the Russian Orthodox Church was a branch of Catholicism, I mean that it was part of the church that split off during the schism, so many of the ideas are similar to Roman Catholicism.
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gdb2001 says
He wasn't a big fan of the Roman Catholic Church, which he associated with the West and with moral degradation. He was afraid it would to some degree corrupt or replace the Russian Orthodox Church, which he saw as part of the national identity. As a result, he fought against the admission of Catholic priests (as well as Protestant ministers) from other countries; he felt he needed to preserve Russian religion, history, and identity. You might find some mention of this in Rebuilding Russia or Russia in Collapse, but I haven't read them, so I don't know for sure.