Ahead of the start of his visit to Bulgaria tomorrow, Russia’s Patriarch Kirill told journalists from the Bulgarian National Radio, Bulgarian National TV and Trud newspaper that he understands and has sympathy for the negative position expressed by the Bulgarian Orthodox Church regarding the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, known as the Istanbul Convention.

In Kirill’s words, the Convention expresses an attitude to same-sex marriages, such as the Orthodox Church strongly rejects for theological reasons. The Russian patriarch added that political freedom is not enough to guarantee the true freedom of the spirit and the church should play a role in freeing humans from the slavery of the new mass culture idols.