On Friday, we posted a link to an article from the Telegraph of London reporting that former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev had publicly acknowledged he was a Christian. He has since denied that report: “Over the last few days some media have been disseminating fantasies—I can’t use any other word—about my secret Catholicism, citing my visit to the Sacro Convento friary, where the remains of St. Francis of Assisi lie,” Gorbachev was quoted by Interfax. “To sum up and avoid any misunderstandings, let me say that I have been and remain an atheist.”

Gorbachev was baptized into the Russian Orthodox Church as a child, and a spokesman for Alexei II, the patriarch of the church, told the Russian media, “In Italy, he spoke in emotional terms, rather than in terms of faith. He is still on his way to Christianity. If he arrives, we will welcome him.”

His parents were Christian, he was baptized in the Russian Orthodox Church, his wife’s parents were persecuted for their faith, and former President Ronald Reagan suspected he was a “closet believer,” but during the years he led the officially atheistic Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev insisted he held only a pantheistic view that “nature” was his god. This week in Italy, however, the last leader of the Soviet Communist regime publicly acknowledged that he is, in fact, a Christian. Gorbachev’s beliefs were revealed when he, along with his daughter Irina, was visiting the tomb of St. Francis of Assisi, where he kneeled and prayed silently for half an hour. “It was through St. Francis that I arrived at the Church, so it was important that I came to visit his tomb,” the 77-year-old Gorbachev told the Telegraph of London. “I feel very emotional to be here at such an important place not only for the Catholic faith, but for all humanity.”

HT: SteveG