Any clergyman who participates in discussions on Facebook, Twitter, LiveJournal and other online communities must constantly remember the responsibility that is imposed on him by speaking in a public space. People look at you primarily as priests. The careless and sometimes outrageous statements of individual clergy cast a shadow on the entire Church of God, causing waves of reciprocal discussions in the blogosphere, in which the subject of attacks becomes not so much the author of the lines him-self as the Russian Orthodox Church as a whole. Nobody forbids you to participate in the life of Internet communities and leave your comments in the topics, but it is necessary to act with judgment and discretion.

On August 26, Mr Anatoly Torkunov, member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, rector of the Moscow State Institute for International relations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, chairman of Trusteeship Council of the Foma Magazine, turns 70. Mr Torkunov is talking with Parsuna on Spas TV about happiness, forgiveness, normal young people, and a university church.

It is important to remember that they judge the whole Church by each priest, and “thanks” to the media, any unpleasant incident causes a wide resonance. It is also important to remember that there are pastoral questions, and there are questions associated with church-social or church-state relations.

Life is not equal to mind, life is an irrational and a very chaotic thing, and if these bastards ever design a homo sapiens, I mean, turn a man into a robot — this will be the end of history.

For two decades of unrestrained existence of our Church press, the issue of the quality of journalistic personnel in the Orthodox media has remained invariably relevant. I remember how, when I was the chairman of the Department for External Church Relations, in a fit of temper one day, I rebuked my employee responsible for media: “Can we still not find anyone to work with us who is both religious and good at writing?”

Why mathematics is a language of God and what miracles happen in a scientist’s life? Why proof of unscientific nature of homeopathy is unscientific, and why lack of forgiveness is dangerous? These and many other very extremely interesting issues were discussed by mathematician Alexei Savvateyev and Vladimir Legoida in Parsuna TV show.

If we formulate the main task of the Orthodox media and, even broader, of the entire Orthodox Church in the face of a modern secular society – which are in many ways conflicting, and feeding on the ideals of mass culture and stereotypes that do not correspond to the moral nature and traditions of the people - in the face of these challenges, the task of the Church is to proclaim what the main purpose is in a person’s life.

People who did wrong and were unjust simply cease to exist for me. Let me give you an example. One of the instigators of that campaign recently died in a tragic accident. TV channels called me on the strange assumption that I would want to comment. I said I wouldn't, what was done was done. I leave my personal feelings to myself.

Today we are witnessing powerful anti-Church rhetoric, which, unfortunately, coincides with Lent. We hear many attacks on the Church, starting with the notorious incident in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior (the so-called “punk prayer” in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior on February 21, 2012 - ed.). This was followed by the horrific desecration of three temples, all concentrated in time, over a week to ten days. After that, as you know, my modest person was also subjected to the spread of false information. Therefore, we are dealing with some kind of information strategy directed against the Church.

Yevgeny Primakov joins Vladimir Legoida on Parsuna Show to discuss the origins and projects of the Russian Humanitarian Mission, his work as a member of parliament, and how faith found its way into his life.

What do we mean by the word “publicity”? If publicity is aimed at achieving material, political goals and personal gain, which, unfortunately, is often seen in the activities of individual hierarchs and priests, this causes rejection among people. They say: “he is taking advantage of publicity.” This, of course, should never be in the Church. Therefore, a clergyman or bishop should always remember that the goals of his public appearances should be closely linked only with his direct ministry, with the main goal of his life - the preaching of Christ.

Science does not forgive dishonesty. Unfortunately, the category of scientists engaged in fraud and forgery is not so rare. There are people who made a brilliant career using this trick. But then their schemes were exposed, since there is a time all cats eventually get out of the bag. In such a situation, nothing will save the fraudster. Science will be merciless.