Views of Moscow. A crow sits on the Minin and Pozharsky monument. A dome of the Pokrovsky cathedral.
Photo: Dmitry Dukhanin
| Other Photos |
 |
|
 |
Best in Confession
Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad has called for stipulating an exceptional role of four traditional religious confessions in Russia – Orthodoxy, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism – in the laws of the country. The legislators don’t object to this initiative of the Orthodox Church, while spokesmen of other confessions regard it as violation of religious equality principal set forth in Russia’s Constitution.
According to officials of Moscow Patriarchy, legislative status of relations between the main confessions and the state is needed to improve the already existing partnership and to make it independent of any definite persons or political situation.
Although the initiative is generally hailed by confessions that Metropolitan Kirill has referred to traditional, the greeting of remaining confessions is at least cold. Russia’s authorities and the leading confessions are clearly in dialog, their representatives say, with no legislative basis provided to the effect, while granting a law status to such confessions will violate the Constitution. “In Russia, the Orthodox [Church] has long been striving to represent the whole Christianity, and by his initiative, the metropolitan wants to formalize inequality towards Catholics and other confession and religions,” a top representative of the Catholic Church said on condition of anonymity.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 06, 2005
|
|
|
