The legal status of priests of the Russian Orthodox Church: review of the new work by I. A. Pibaev

A new monograph on Church Law by I. A. Pibaev is an interesting and noteworthy work in which he compares the legal status of clergy in the Russian Orthodox and Catholic Churches. The range of problems covered in the work is significant and quite accurately reflects the key issues in the area of clergy activities, their rights and responsibilities in light of civil laws and church legal norms. At the same time, it is not entirely clear why a number of issues relevant for today’s Russian Church did not catch the eye of I. A. Pibaev: for example, why judgements on the status of a priest are moving more and more from the religious and moral area into the legal one. Nevertheless, in general, the research in the context proposed seems to be quite original and deserves high praise.