Oct 02, 2007Quickie Link: Russian Patriarch Assaults Gays Before PACE
By vanrozenheim
(Russia) - Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexiy II said on Tuesday European civilisation was "threatened by a divorce of human rights from Christian ethics that opened the way to immoral behaviour". Talking at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe at the start of a visit to France, he told a questioner after his speech he had compassion for homosexuals, but Gay sex was a sin and Gay parades were "propaganda for homosexuality". Alexiy's speech echoed similar "defences of Christianity" in Europe by Roman Catholicism's Pope Benedict. The Russian Orthodox Church is the largest in Orthodox Christianity, which claims about 220 million followers. The Vatican, representing 1.1 billion Catholics, wants to work more closely with it to impose Christianity on Europe.
