Patriarch Kirill
Patriarch Kirill

His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Kirill has taken part in the 4th Christmas parliamentary meetings held at the Council of the Federation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation – traditional meetings of church leaders and Parliament. In his speech the Patriarch declared that laws must be based on Divine revelation: “Law is, undoubtedly, a man-made institution, but its values lie with Divine morality.”

To develop this thought, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) moved on to condemn the practice of legalizing same-sex marriage: “As we all know, the law in some countries makes provisions for creating so-called same-sex unions, which goes against God’s commandments and statutes which clearly view family as a union between a man and a woman created, first and foremost, for the purpose of procreation.” The Patriarch then expressed his concerns regarding abortion: “Russian law remains one of the most liberal in the world regarding abortion.”

Thus, the social policy of the Russian Orthodox Church is unambiguously expressed in his speech: same-sex unions are “sinful” and must be eradicated, abortions must be combatted and a “traditional” understanding of family as a union of a man and a woman formed for the purpose of procreation must be established. Notably, this speech was addressed to the Parliament of the Russian Federation, a secular state whose citizens represent a multitude of religions.

Based on the material from Russian Orthodox Church official website, January 29th 2016 for Nuntiare.org

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