MOSCOW, Oct. 4 (UPI) -- A senior official of the Russian Orthodox Church strongly objected Monday to proposals to make saints of Rasputin and Ivan the Terrible.
"Ivan the Terrible and Grigory Rasputin are presented as symbols of people's piety, which is juxtaposed to the official piety of the Church," said the head of the Synodal Canonization Commission, metropolitan of Krutitsy and Kolomna Yuvenaly.
His remarks came at the Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church which opened in Moscow on Sunday, the Interfax news agency reported.
The metropolitan said he was concerned with a report by the Synodal Canonization Commission, which dwelled on the veneration of historical people who have not been canonized.
"Initiators of this canonization must realize that the very discussion of such veneration leads to temptation and discredits the idea of canonizing saints," the metropolitan said.
