"Here's a simple thing: the Orthodox Church does not agree and will never agree with the newfangled idea of marriage. We consider the cohabitation which is now practised by people of the same sex a particular sin", the patriarch told the Rossiya 1 channel.
Patriarch Kirill said the Western church is "particularly vulnerable" in matters related to same-sex marriages.
Patriarch Kirill is the sixteenth patriarch of the Russian Church. In January 2009, the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church elected him the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, and on 1 February 2009, he was enthroned in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in the Russian capital.
Russia recognises neither same-sex marriage nor any other form of civil union for same-sex couples. The 2020 Russian constitutional referendum officially enshrined exclusively heterosexual marriage in the country's basic law.