MOSCOW, February 3. / TASS /. Permission to open homosexuals to become priests, which the Italian Episcopal Conference gave in January, is a roll towards a liberal and far from the gospel teaching agenda. This was stated by the head of the Department of External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk.
“I will not hide: what we observe today in the Catholic Church in the context of traditional family values cannot but cause bewilderment and concern,” he said in an interview with the TASS Analytical Center.
“Most recently, the Vatican published the document Fiducia supplicans (“Powering Trust” – approx. TASS), which, in fact, introduces a new practice for Catholics to bless same-sex couples. The Synodal Theological Commission of the Russian Orthodox Church analyzed this document and published its review, which contains numerous comments. Derogations from traditional Christian family ethics have already become sad in many Protestant denominations, “said Metropolitan Anthony.
According to him, the topic of family ethics and traditional moral values is “one of the few that the Roman Catholic Church and I could talk about, as they say, in the same language.”
“For many years we have built relations with the Roman Catholic Church precisely on the basis of topics common to us and those issues where our positions coincide. The danger is that the topic of traditional Christian family ethics, in fact, falls out of our agenda. And if this does happen, then I don’t really imagine what further we could talk with Catholics together, “he stressed.