The representative of the Moscow Patriarchate compared Europe with the USSR, where the atheism ball ruled

The Chairman of the Department of External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate (MPC MP) Metropolitan Hilarion on the broadcast of the author’s program "Church and Mir" on the Russia-24 television channel compared the present Europe with the Soviet Union, where the official ideology was atheistic.

He is surprising that today, "relatively speaking, Russian civilization and European have changed roles in a sense." "The Soviet Union was the country of official state atheism, while the West was perceived by all of us as a Christian region," the interfax -religion portal of the Metropolitan’s word quoted.

Now the opposite is true, the head of the MP MP is believed: in Russia, faith, church, new temples are being revived, monasteries, spiritual educational institutions are opened, "and in the West there is a gradual decrease in religiosity, temples are closed, some temple buildings are simply sold."

"Secularism and atheism have actually become the official ideology of Western Europe. Of course, the church is not yet driven to the extent that we had in Soviet times, when the temples were explosive and destroyed. But the ideology of modern secular Europe practically excludes the church and religion from public space, that is, you can be religious as a private person, but your religiosity should not say in any way on your public Roles, on your professional activity, ”said Metropolitan Hilarion.

At the same time, he believes that the religious revival in Europe "intoxication of" freedom ", permissiveness, people will understand what this leads to, and the return to the Christian roots will begin."

In turn, the Russian political scientist and economist Sergei Karaganov, who took part in the program "Church and the World", expressed the hope that "European societies will rise, in the positive sense of the word, against the democracy imposed by him as a new religion."

“I believe that human rights should be defended intensively by us and around the world, but with these pseudo religions we cannot replace the morality that is brought up in us on the basis of the Christian faith,” he said.