Vincent Berg
[4] According to his 2022 interview, "Just before completion of high school, I was approached by a high-ranking KGB officer, who offered me two options of becoming political intelligence officer: (1) while studying in the Moscow Institute of International Relations and obtaining a cover of a diplomat; or (2) while undertaking a special medical training and obtaining a cover of a psychiatrist for working in some international medical organisations such as the World Health Organization, for example.
I guess that I was chosen by the KGB because my father and some other relatives occupied high governmental positions and belonged to the so called ‘nomenklatura’, making me a person of their circle.
According to the same interview, "as a result of my professional study of the human psyche and a search for personal meaning of life, I found God and turned towards religion.
He was appointed a cleric of the Assumption Church of the town of Aleksin, but here, referring to a sore throat, he constantly missed services without blessing and valid reasons.
However, soon after that, on June 17, 1983, Bishop German (Timofeyev) of Tula issued a document to Viktor Chekalin with the following content: "In view of your disagreement to accept the appointment to serve as a deacon in the Nativity of Theotokos Church of the town of Belyov, since you have returned my decree to me, I do not mind if you find yourself a feasible job at your discretion and your capabilities".
However, researcher Serhii Shumylo calls these testimonies exaggerated, referring to the absence in the Chekalin's personal file the data on such significant obediences.
Therefore, he is going to "submit a petition to Mount Athos: I believe that the grace of the Holy Mountain and its beneficial climate for me will bring me spiritual and physical healing"[11] In May 1984, he was expelled from the monastery and sent back to the Diocese of Tula.
As Eulogius (Smirnov) later recalled when he was Archbishop of Vladimir and Suzdal, "apparently, he was still looking not for monasticism, but for a good position and the opportunity to live in a monastery on a grand scale.
At the same time, according to Chekalin, on May 16, 1987, "while on forced labor," he "formally registered a marriage with Levina Lyubov Ivanovna, dying of liver cancer, at her request, in order to adopt her son.
[14] On May 15, 1988, by a resolution of Patriarch Pimen, he was deprived of the diaconate on the basis of the 26th Apostolic canon (marriage after the priesthood ordination), about which Chancellor of the Moscow Patriarchy Metropolitan Vladimir (Sabodan) of Rostov and Novocherkassk, notified Archbishop Maxim (Krokha) of Tula and Belyov by letter dated May 26, 1988.
[15] As Serhii Shumylo notes, "there is every reason to believe that the former deacon Viktor Chekalin never had not only a presbyterian dignity, but even monasticism, and the name he used 'Vikenty' can rather be considered a kind of creative or agent pseudonym".
The same certificate stated that Chekalin, "offended by the irreversibility of what happened, wrote a letter to the local department of the KGB of the city of Zelenchuk with a description of the place of residence and the works of Metr.
In another reference kept in the archives of Holy Trinity Seminary in Jordanville, it is stated that "Chekalin were anathematized by 8 bishops of the Catacomb Church for the unseemly actions" and "his ministry in the rank of hieromonk was banned".
Apparently, Chekalin's trip to the United States to attend a meeting of the Synod of Bishops of the ROCOR was carried out with the direct patronage of Kharchev.
In December 1989 – January 1990, Chekalin managed to leave the Soviet Union for the United States, where he attended a meeting of the Synod of Bishops of the ROCOR in New York City, where he addressed its members and answered their questions.
[27] In his 2022 interview, he accused Bishop Lazar (Zhurbenko) of being sent by KGB specifically to discredit him, and also stated that he "found the nationalistic atmosphere dominating there, as spiritually unacceptable"[citation needed] Having escaped with a scandal in early February 1990 from the Synod of Bishops of the ROCOR (ROCOR bought him a return air ticket and took him to the airport by car – are these signs of scandal and flight?
), Chekalin returns to the Soviet Union, but immediately after returning he does not go home to Tula, but finds himself in Lviv, Ukraine, where he introduces himself as the ROCOR bishop, which he strongly denies, and meets the former bishop John (Bodnarchuk) of Zhytomyr and Ovruch, whom he had already known several years before, who transferred in October 1989 from the Russian Orthodox Church to the reviving Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church,[28] which by the beginning of 1990 numbered about 200 parishes and communities, mainly in Western Ukraine.
In such circumstances, it was decided to perform the ordination together with Viktor Chekalin, who returned from the US, yet, not offered his services,[29] as Serhii Shumylo claims, but responded to Bodnarchuk's request.
Later, Bodnarchuk testified to the members of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church that he first met Chekalin in late February – early March 1990 in Lviv, believing that he was the legitimate bishop of the ROCOR.
The decision to appoint Ioann Bodnarchuk was made without a conciliar discussion and the election of a candidate, hastily, secretly and bypassing the Church Rada of the UAOC.
<...> The Synod of Bishops of the ROCOR warns against even greater canonical errors due to the fact that a person who does not have the grace of apostolic succession could participate in the commission of episcopal ordinations".
That is, when drawing up the document at the time of Basil (Bodnarchuk)'s ordination, the name of the third participant was not yet known, and was entered much later, retroactively, after Archbishop Barlaam (Ilyushenko) died.
On January 10, Sterniuk signed a letter stating: "By the authority given to the patriarchs or patriarchal locum tenens of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church by His Holiness the Pope, I confirm His Grace Vikenty (Viktor Vladimirovich Chekalin), Bishop of Yasnaya Polyana, the First Hierarch of the Russian Catholic Church with the right to appoint and receive bishops, form dioceses and with all other management rights".
Soon Cardinal Edward Cassidy, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and Archbishop Francesco Colasuonno, Papal nuncio to the USSR, declared (where is the exact source link?)
Cardinal Myroslav Ivan Lubachivsky, newly appointed to Ukraine, declared that Sterniuk had exceeded his powers and appropriated the rights of the first hierarch.
Moreover, there is an opinion that, according to unconfirmed reports, in September 1992, Pope John Paul II made Chekalin a secret cardinal, but the latter refused to return to Russia due to the mortal threat to his life, preferring to emigrate to Australia.
[44] So the charges against Berg were first brought in 2005 during the Morris Inquiry into Queensland Health which was launched after Dr Jayant Patel forged his qualifications in Bundaberg.
[52] Arresting officer Detective Sergeant Steven Bignell told the hearing Berg used fake qualifications from a Russian university to hoodwink authorities, including the Australian Medical Council.
[3] On March 23, 2018, Berg found guilty in the Southport District Court of faking a medical diploma, before maintaining the lie that he was a fully trained psychiatrist.
Also noteworthy is Berg's own comment on YouTube regarding publications discrediting him: “The ability of Russian (and previously Soviet) propagandists and intelligence services to falsify and disinformation has long been known to the whole world, but you still continue to believe them.
