<\/p>\n
On 11 March 2015, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia met with Dr. Zsolt Semj\u00e9n, Deputy Prime Minister of Hungary.<\/p>\n
They were joined in the meeting, which took place at the Patriarchal residence in Chisty lane, by archimandrite Philaret (Bulekov), vice-chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate\u2019s Department (DECR), and Mr. \u00c1rp\u00e1d Erdei, charg\u00e9 d\u2019affaires a.i. of the Republic of Hungary in the Russian Federation.<\/p>\n
His Holiness Patriarch Kirill warmly greeted the guest and said: \u2018I am happy to meet with you, a theologically educated man, knowledgeable in the realities of Christianity. You have done a lot for your people and your state.\u2019<\/p>\n
His Holiness believes that the fact of Hungary\u2019s defending Christian values is very important. \u2018As the Russian Orthodox Church insists on the necessity of preserving a Christian dimension in the European culture, we appreciate and respect the position of Hungary,\u2019 he underscored.<\/p>\n
Dr. Semj\u00e9n expressed his joy over meeting with the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church and conveyed him greetings from the Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n and Cardinal P\u00e9ter Erd\u00f6, Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest. Dr. Semj\u00e9n said that people in Hungary remembered the visit of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, the then chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate\u2019s Department for External Church Relations.<\/p>\n
The Hungarian Deputy Prime Minister emphasized: \u2018The truth is that we, Christians keep fighting. Many attacked us because of our Constitution as it begins with the word \u2018God\u2019 and because we fixed that marriage is the union of man and woman. Also, we uphold an idea that human life begins at conception and deserves respect and protection from that moment on.\u2019<\/p>\n
Dr. Semj\u00e9n thanked His Holiness Patriarch Kirill for support of this stand and of the efforts undertaken in Hungary for protecting traditional values in Europe, mentioned the encounters of the state leaders of Hungary with Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, DECR chairman, and with Archbishop Mark of Yegorievsk, administrator a.i. of the Budapest and Hungary diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church and underscored:<\/p>\n
\u2018We are proud of the agreement reached last year by the Republic of Hungary and the Russian Orthodox Church, which now enjoys the same historical status in the country as the Catholics Church.\u2019<\/p>\n
Also discussed were issues of common concern.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia met with Dr. Zsolt Semj\u00e9n, Deputy Prime Minister of Hungary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":101947,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16,1,11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.mospat.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116476"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.mospat.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.mospat.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.mospat.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.mospat.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/old.mospat.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.mospat.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.mospat.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.mospat.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.mospat.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}