The Catholic Church and several other EU countries, notably Poland, Italy and Germany, have been lobbying European Union leaders to state and include Europe's Christian roots in the EU constitution.

Alexy II has been very active in Russia and internationally in defense of Christianity and traditional morality.

At a Kremlin meeting with President Vladimir Putin in November he called for tighter controls over the content of Russian TV and radio broadcasts, saying they were promoting "vicious behavior."

"Many television and radio programs show the permissibility of vicious behavior and it makes one contemplate the moral criteria of what mass media are allowed to do. Our society needs a public council that will assume appropriate regulating functions," he said.

In his October mission to the Council of Europe he eloquently explained the Christian moral roots of modern human rights and decried the misuse of these rights to justify immoral behavior. He also had the opportunity to defend his opposition to the Moscow "gay pride" march, saying "it is an advertisement that is being forced on people who are a very long way from it."

Alexy II has also waded into the evolution debate by demanding that Russian schools end the communist practice of teaching Darwinism exclusively and allow a freer inquiry and debate on creation and evolution. "Teaching the biblical theory of the world's creation will not harm students," he said. "If people choose to believe that they descended from apes, let them, but without imposing their opinions on others."

Read related LifeSiteNews.com articles: Russian Orthodox Patriarch Explains Stand on Homosexuality to Council of Europe "Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin" http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/oct/07100308.html

END