This was announced on Sunday by Patriarch Cyril of Moscow and All Russia after a liturgy in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin.
“Today it is well known how from different sides – both from abroad and some forces from Russia itself – they are trying to influence the Church,” he said today after the liturgy in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin.
The purpose of these forces is to ensure that the Church takes one or another political position: “it would condemn someone, it would support someone, and most of the time these requests and demands are associated with the political likes and dislikes of those who resort to the Church with such proposals.”, said the patriarch.
But the Church, being a spiritual force that has a great influence on people’s lives, according to the patriarch, does not interfere in political processes and “does not advocate against each other”, because any participation in such actions implies the division of people.
– And the Church is called to unite everyone regardless of political beliefs, nationalities, different historiosophical points of view, etc., – said the patriarch.
In his opinion, the ROC can and should support those politicians or public figures who uphold the unity of all the people, the unity of the Church, and “the true independence of the country from various powerful forces, whether in the east or the west, or in some other places on our planet.
The fears of the Church are connected with the possibility of a negative political impact on the spiritual life of the country, as it happened in the past.
For this reason, according to the patriarch, the Church supports the independence of the country and all the actions of the authorities that aim to maintain that independence from other political forces outside the country.
– This does not mean participation in politics, it means concern for the well-being of the people, for the preservation of our authenticity, for the preservation of the Orthodox faith and the values by which our people still live, – the patriarch clarified.
