Moscow, November 6, 2020
Photo: pravlife.org
The Orthodox Church treats people with non-traditional orientations pastorally, not by expelling them from churches, but by helping them overcome their unnatural attractions, His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, the head of the Russian Church’s Department for External Church Relations said on a recent episode of the Church and the World.
“We treat people with non-traditional sexual orientations with pastoral responsibility. We do not drive these people out or excommunicate them from the Church. They come to us for confession. We work with them, we help them overcome this attraction, if they truly want to overcome it,” the Metropolitan said, reports Foma.
However, the Church will not go along with the trends accepted today, the Metropolitan emphasized, such as when psychologists proclaim certain inclinations not a reason to work on oneself, but simply a characteristic of a person that needs to be realized.
“There’s no way we can agree with this,” His Eminence said.
In human society, it is necessary and correct to distinguish between a person’s inclinations and their way of life, he continued. “For example, we know that some have an addiction to alcohol. Moreover, we know that drinking parents sometimes give birth to children who later, as adults, also start drinking. Is it inherited or acquired? Every person chooses his own way of life,” Met. Hilarion reflected.
In this regard, if some people choose a homosexual lifestyle, it means they have consciously taken a position that contradicts the teachings of the Church, His Eminence concluded.
