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On 16th December 2013, Metropolitan Hilarion, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, currently in Budapest with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, met with the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán.

In the beginning of their talk, Metropolitan Hilarion underscored the importance of the new Constitution adopted by the Hungarian Parliament as it contains a mention of God, calls Hungary a part of Christian Europe and defines marriage as a union between man and woman. The DECR chairman highly appreciated the position of the Hungarian authorities taken against the legalization of abortions and said that strengthening of family values was a priority aspect of cooperation between the Church and the state in Russia. He also spoke about the revival of church life in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union and about the ministry of the Russian Orthodox Church at present.

Prime Minister Orbán expressed deep satisfaction with Metropolitan Hilarion’s visit. He considers helpful and justified the involvement of representatives of the Church in the discussion of topical public issues. He said that the government of Hungary paid great attention to the family policy as it directly affects the future of the nation and expressed his anxiety over the erosion of Christian understanding of the family in modern Europe.

Metropolitan Hilarion and Prime Minister Orbán discussed certain issues of the relations between the people of Russia and Hungary and topical international problems, including the persecution of Christians in the Middle East.