NO COMPROMISES WITH CATHOLICS

"In our relations with other Christian confessions we have to understand the principle of distinction. The simple fact that we are communicating does not mean that we are trying to become a single entity." This is the position of Metropolitan Kirill, Patriarchal Locum Tenens of Moscow, who is regarded as the most likely successor to Patriarch Alexius II. In an interview released this week by Russian publication "Argumenty i Fakty" (Arguments and Facts) on the relations with other Christian confessions, Kirill explained that "unfortunately, differences in religious doctrines and practices have increased between orthodoxy and other confessions." "With some protestant communities, as the Lutheran Church of Sweden and the Episcopal Church of the United States, we have come to a complete break, due to the official recognition of homosexual relations," explained the Metropolitan. As for our relations with the Catholic Church, Metropolitan Kirill explains that the positions of the two Churches on social matters are "more close." "Nevertheless, we are accountable for a great number of differences in doctrine and practice between the Orthodox and the Catholic Churches and, in this regard, there is no room for compromise." "Nevertheless, this does not prevent us from being open and friendly with people who share different points of view, and with whom we live in the same society," he added.
© SIR