Metropolitan Kirill, Head of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations, has made a strong statement condemning societal acceptance of homosexuality and reaffirming the task of the Church to proclaim the truth, in an interview published on Thursday by the German magazine Spiegel.
Metropolitan Kirill said that if society stops considering homosexuality a sin, the next step will be general excuse of various sexual perversions.
"Morality is either absolute or it does not exist. If you excuse homosexuality, why not to excuse pedophilia?" Metropolitan Kirill asked.
When asked by the interviewer to comment on the 'great difference' between homosexuals and pedophiles, as the latter violate 'personal freedom' by raping children, Metropolitan Kirill said that "12-year-old girls were considered children before, but now they develop much faster. Twenty years ago nobody could imagine that Germany would legalize homosexual marriages. However, they get used to it by now. It is a matter of principle. There is one moral nature."
Reminding the interviewer that the Bible calls homosexuality a sin, Metropolitan Kirill stressed that the Church does not condemn homosexuals and is against "persecuting or insulting these people."
"But why promote the sin? Gay-parade is an intrusive display of depravity. Thus we can successfully promote any other sin, as is done on TV. It vitiates public morality. The task of the Church is to say that sin is sin. Otherwise, the Church is not needed," he concluded.
In March, 2007, Kirill denounced the idea of conducting a gay pride parade in Moscow. He said it "is directed against the majority of Russian society. We believe that the law should not interfere in citizens' private lives. You can sin if you want to, but you will answer to God. However, if you are trying to propagate your sin by seducing and degrading people, society must oppose it."
