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On 5 December 2016, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia met with Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, Archbishop of Paris.

Taking part in the meeting were Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations; Bishop Nestor of Korsun; and Bishop Antony of Bogorodsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Administration for Institutions Abroad.

Cardinal Vingt-Trois warmly greeted His Holiness Patriarch Kirill and congratulated him on the blessing of the Holy Trinity Cathedral on the Branly embankment in Paris. He believes it to be a testimony of good relations between Russia and France, the Cathedral being a symbol of these relations.

His Holiness Kirill thanked Cardinal Vingt-Trois for his support of the construction.

Discussed at the meeting was the problem of the ousting of traditional Christian values from the life of Europe at present. His Holiness thanked the Archbishop of Paris for the position of the Roman Catholic Church in France on same-sex marriages. As known, the French Catholics declaimed against the law which not only legalized such unions but also afforded them the right to adopt children.

Having expressed solidarity with the Roman Catholic Church in France in this issue, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill emphasized: ‘We have see the face of the Catholic France at the meetings held against the law on the adoption of children by same-sex parents.’