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Russland: Patriarch Kirill urges to base legislation on law of morals

26. Oktober 2017
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia believes that moral sense shared by all nations should be laid in basis of legislation in every country of the modern world. "No matter how different our countries, nations and establishments are, we all have moral sense, each of us has the voice of conscience, in other words, our differences are above basis, while moral sense is our true basis, it is truly universal characteristic of a human nature given to us from the birth. It is not constructed by someone who invented "true" universal values, and can correct them or "improve" in favor of certain political, ideological or even financial interests," the patriarch said on Monday at the 137th Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly held in Petersburg.

The primate of the Russian Church attracted attention of the MPs to the fact that moral teaching of various religious traditions contains "co-incidence, appeal to human conscience," Christians call it "the voice of God in out hearts." "It is not by chance that we speak about "the golden rule of morality," which in the language of Gospels say: do to others as you would have them do to you. To my point of view, a possibility of moral consensus for people is based on this profound experience," Patriarch Kirill stressed.

To illustrate his words he said that all cultures of the world has a notion of a good hero. "An evil hero cannot be an example for following. Even if an evil character is depicted as attractive one, good forces win a victory, he crashes and in the best case scenario he only deserves sympathy. It also reflects the unity of human moral nature," the patriarch believes, "if all people have one positive hero, then the whole humanity has one, shared moral nature and this moral nature should be preserved by religion, culture, education and legislation."

Patriarch Kirill also said that conscience and morality should not be only a part of a person's private life, "claiming that the most important thing is to observe legislation, all other things are secondary." "I am convinced that the true value of legislation opens when the legislation is based on human moral sense, when juridical requirements coincide with the voice of conscience," the patriarch said, lamenting that today separation of law and morality result in such precedents "when first time in human history they accept things traditionally considered violation of moral establishments as the norm of law." (Quelle: www.interfax-religion.com, 16. Oktober 2017)