Moscow, January 25, 2012
 |
"We need to think a thousand times before replying, whether spontaneously or emotionally and vehemently, to any call of this sort: be with us only and not them, be with us against them, do not meet with Churov, do not meet with Navalny, meet only with those who have been recommended to you," head of the Synodal Department for Church and Society Relations Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin said at the 20th Christmas Readings in Moscow.
"Such pressure will no longer be productive in the future, but one has to counter it by saying that the Church, while being open to all, is not prepared to take one side against the other in a civil confrontation," the priest said.
"The Church is for all people being able to speak out, to take part in the political process, to influence the decisions of the state. But at the same time, it will never be with those who are trying to destroy civil peace or statehood as such," Father Vsevolod said.
