The Russian Orthodox Church should exert a stronger influence on national culture to prevent it from turning into a destructive force, a senior hierarch said today (March 9, 2010).
"If the Church does not take part in the country's cultural life, culture is running the risk of turning into an anti-culture, as has repeatedly happened in the past," Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, who oversees the Church's external relations, said in an interview with the RIA Novosti (Russian) website.
He added that critics' fears that the increasingly authoritative Church had too large a role in society were unfounded, declaring that it would not turn into a censor.
The influence of the Russian Orthodox Church has been on the rise since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, becoming one of the key institutions in Russian society.
Hilarion said there should be no return to the times of the atheist Soviet Union, where people were told that "culture and art serve progress and the church is a cesspool for losers and old women 'seeking consolation in religion.'"
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