Most Rev. Kirill Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad who after the sudden death of Alexiy II held the post of the Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne is 16th Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. He got three times more votes in his favour than his rival Metropolitan Clement of Kaluga and Borovsk, Chancellor of the Moscow Patriarchate (508 to 169 votes of the Local Council).
Metropolitan Kirill is known as an initiator and a consistent champion of homophobia policy of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Russian society. In recent years the main theme of his public statements was the criticism of the European civilisation. On a regular basis he made pathetic speeches that sharply criticised human rights. The Moscow Patriarchate supposes that human rights should be circumscribed by moral and ethic norms. Most Reverend Kirill called for a ban for homosexual people to educate and to adopt children, declared "tolerance towards gays" as "an alien to Russian traditions" and compared freedom of sex with the "freedom to kill" (i.e. abortion). In 2006 he made a statement that "for believers it is not necessary to obey the law that breaches Christian values".
Translated by Yerdna Bananes