RUSSIA

A senior official of the Russian Orthodox Church has told attendees at a meeting in Moscow that human rights cannot be considered only from a secular standpoint, which he said often fails to take into account questions of morality, and the difference between good and evil. “To speak of freedom and not speak of good and evil is impossible,” said Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, the chairperson of the Moscow Patriarchate's Department of External Church Relations. “This is what is absent from the absolute majority of contemporary documents that describe the rights and freedoms of people.” (Ecumenical News International)