Novaya Gazeta: Metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church in Budapest at the center of a sexual affair

A huge scandal is shaking the Russian Orthodox Church (RPC), and the main participant is Metropolitan Hilarion of Budapest, a longtime favorite of Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev. It is about love, that is, a sexual affair. And homosexual, if I need to emphasize, it says Jutarnji list.

Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) was the patriarch's right-hand man and second person in the Russian Orthodox Church for a long time. Since 2009, he has been the chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate (that is, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the PRC) and has often been mentioned in the media as a potential successor to Kirill. However, in June 2022, four months after Russia's attack on Ukraine, he was sent without explanation to Hungary, where he was named Metropolitan of Budapest and Hungary, a demotion since it is one of the smallest dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Then the media connected this mysterious dismissal with the "anti-war attitude" of the metropolitan, calling his dismissal "the resignation of the year", and Hilarion himself ambiguously commented on his dismissal with the words: "You can consider that the road took a very sharp turn, I did not fit into it and finished alone from the side".

After coming to Hungary, Hilarion served as an intermediary between the Russian Orthodox Church and the West and met with high officials of the Catholic Church, including Pope Francis. The two know each other very well because they have met on several occasions, the last time when Pope Francis visited Hungary last year. In June 2023, the media even wrote about Hilarion's mediation in the transfer of Ukrainian prisoners to Hungary, writes Jutanji list.

It all started when on March 14, the state-run RIA Novosti published an incidental article about the "big theft in the Hungarian Orthodox diocese" with an atypical note at the end of the news: "The source clarified that the name of the suspect was not revealed in the interest of the investigation, and reminded that for aggravated theft, according to the Hungarian Criminal Code, is punishable by a prison sentence of one to five years".

But visitors to the website of the Holy Trinity in Budapest, where Hilarion serves, noticed that a young man with an oriental face, who was previously present in photos and broadcasts of almost all liturgies led by Metropolitan Hilarion, had disappeared from the announcements there since January. And recently, his picture is on the wanted list of the Hungarian police for theft, as well as the name that reads, George Suzuki. His father is Japanese, his mother Russian, and he was Hilarion's lover.

"Novaja Gazeta" journalists reached out to Suzuki, but they also received a comment from Hilarion. In short, Suzuki accuses the metropolitan of sexual harassment, while Hilarion claims to be the victim of blackmail.

It all started when Hilarion arrived in Budapest, and eighteen-year-old Suzuki, an Orthodox young man from a Russian-Japanese family, offered himself as a cell guard, and, as he said, he wanted to become a disciple of the metropolitan. Hilarion agreed and invited Suzuki to work at the Holy Trinity. In October 2022, the young man arrived in Budapest. For a while he only saw the metropolitan in passing, but after a few weeks Hilarion invited him to move into a room in his apartment to help with household chores. Suzuki agreed and moved into Hilarion's quarters.

In November, Hilarion took Suzuki to a summer house/cottage in France, which, according to Suzuki, belongs to the Metropolitan, and is located on Lake Geneva. So the young man fell ill and spent several days with a high fever. Then, according to his words, the first physical contact with the metropolitan took place: during another attack of fever, Hilarion undressed Suzuki and lay down in his bed, allegedly to warm the young man.

Since then, they started spending more and more time together in bed. At first, Hilarion came to "check up" on the young man because of his illness, then, when they returned to Hungary, he started visiting him in the evenings, and eventually slept with Suzuki regularly. At the same time, as Suzuki claims, there was no direct sexual intercourse. In September 2023, when he tried to express his dissatisfaction, he began to receive threats from Hilarion - the metropolitan stated that the young man could have problems if they were separated.

After a while, Suzuki asked the metropolitan a question: "What will happen if I leave you?" - and audio recorded Hilarion's answer. In the video, writes Jutarnji list, Hilarion says that Suzuki will "feel bad" and that "nothing will work for him". In another clip, Hilarion forbids Suzuki from wearing pajamas before going to bed. George says he's cold, but Hilarion replies, "You're not cold."

According to Suzuki, the metropolitan said that he wanted to "feel his skin" and "caress him like a father." Suzuki claims that he sometimes avoided nightly contact with Hilarion, citing ill health, and this greatly angered the metropolitan - the next day he was nervous.

In a response to Novaja Gazeta, Metropolitan Hilarion called Suzuki's accusations of sexual harassment groundless and announced the filing of a defamation lawsuit. Although he did not deny the authenticity of the recordings made by Suzuki, he asserted that they were not sexual. Aku considers the essence of his relationship with George too personal and is not ready to talk about it. Hilarion also stated that he did not consider it possible to comment on the substance of the conflict, since Suzuki is reportedly wanted by Interpol.

"If I start saying something, it could hurt (the investigation)," Hilarion said. He also declined to answer a question about whether he owns property in France, where, according to Suzuki, they spent time together.

It was also learned that Hilarion spends his free time in entertainment. There is only one formal canonical restriction: he may not be absent from the parish for more than three Sundays in a row, in order not to arouse unnecessary suspicion and accusations of violation of the Apostolic Rule. Following this rule, the metropolitan plans his yacht tours and trips to the ski resorts in order to return to Budapest in time for Sunday services. There are photos that prove how Hilarion lives: they show him riding in a speedboat with friends, skiing in the mountains and sunbathing on a sandy beach. In addition, during their life together, Suzuki discovered the metropolitan's contract to purchase a 2.360 square meter property for 2.150.000 euros in the suburbs of Budapest. According to the contract, Hilarion's castle has 14 rooms, a swimming pool, a gym, a wine cellar and parking for six cars. Hilarion spends his free time in the luxurious villa, receiving guests, organizing feasts and driving an electric scooter.

Even earlier, Novaya Gazeta wrote about Hilarion's luxury property in the residential complex Nostrum II in Spain, worth 950.000 euros, and the metropolitan himself admitted that he also has a four-room apartment in Moscow. By the way, George's phone contains Hilarion's Hungarian passport, in which "Hungarian" is indicated in the nationality column. A photograph of the document shows that the date of issue differs by only three months from the date of Hilarion's appointment to Hungary. That is, Hilarion was granted the country's citizenship within weeks of entering the country - an unprecedented precedent for an EU country, possible only with the direct intervention of top officials.

In January 2024, George decided to run away. After convincing Hilarion that he had to take a blood test in Budapest, he left the parish area, left the country and returned to Japan. Before leaving, he took expensive watches and money with a total value of 30.000 euros from Hilarion's house. It was because of that "subsequent" theft that criminal proceedings were initiated against Suzuki in Hungary. In order to keep quiet about their relationship, Hilarion wrote to him and offered 2.000 euros per month, but then George's mother Veronika Suzuki asked to pay the money in one lump sum 16 years in advance.

By the way, Hilarion has repeatedly criticized the Catholic Church in public for allowing the blessing of LGBT persons and emphasized the importance of protecting "traditional values". In 2021, he approved a Russian law banning the propagation of "non-traditional values", saying that "the same laws should be introduced in other countries".

After the conversation with Novaya Gazeta, Hilarion immediately flew to Moscow. Sources in the Russian Orthodox Church said that the metropolitan traveled to consult with Patriarch Kirill about the consequences of the scandal.