DECR chairman meets with Ireland’s Ambassador to Russia

30 August 2013, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, met with H.E. Mr. Philip McDonagh, Ireland’s Ambassador to Russia, who is concluding his diplomatic mission in Moscow. The meeting took place at the Department for External Church Relations.

The DECR chairman congratulated Mr. McDonagh on his new appointment to Austria, thanked him for cooperation and wished him success in his further diplomatic career. Metropolitan Hilarion told the British Ambassador about the Cathedral of St Nicholas in Vienna and about the time when he served in the capital of Austria as the bishop of Vienna and Austria.

The participants in the meeting discussed the current situation of Christians in Europe. Metropolitan Hilarion expressed his concern over secular processes going on on the European continent, over the legalization of same-sex unions and promotion of the idea that homosexual couples have the right to adopt children.