On Sunday, after the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia celebrated at the Church of Our Lady of Kazan at the Convent of the Nativity of the Mother of God, he met with Hungary’s Minister for Social Resources Zoltan Balog, the DECR Communication Service reports.
Patriarch Kirill noted with satisfaction that the Hungarian leaders made a stand for the Christian roots of the Hungarian culture, saying, “We welcome the fact that the Constitution of Hungary now includes a statement that it is the God of Christianity who unites the Hungarian people, and we also welcome the stand taken by the Hungarian Government – certainly supported by the people – with regard to the nature of marriage as union of man and woman. It is a difficult task to defend Christian beliefs in Europe today, but I am sure there will be no Europe without it.”
According to the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, it is necessary to build not a civilization of instinct but a civilization of freedom entailing responsibility. He also said that at present a great number of Russia-speaking compatriots – Russians, Ukrainians, Byelorussians, Moldovans and others – live in the territory of Hungary. He thanked the leaders of that country for the conditions in which the ROC Diocese of Hungary and Budapest lives and takes pastoral care of these people. He also noted with gratitude that as a result of appropriate decisions made by the Hungarian justice, Russian-speaking compatriots have an opportunity to worship in a cathedral of their own.
Mr. Zoltan Balog, on his part, thanked the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church for the kind words about the Hungarian people and their leaders. He conveyed to His Holiness best regards from Hungary’s Prime Minister Victor Orban.
He said that the experience gained by Russia and Hungary at the time of atheism should not be forgotten, “because the Church defeated the ideological, theoretical atheism but the practical atheism it very difficult to overcome. We have learnt how to preserve the faith in a situation of ideological struggle,” he said, adding that today’s Europe stood in the strong need of such experience.
Russkiy Mir Foundation Information Service
