Russian Patriarch feels unwell after warning believers to avoid 'everything Western'

Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill felt unwell after a speech in St. Petersburg, Fontanka reports.

Photo: commons.wikimedia.org by Пресс-служба Администрации Волгоградской области, CC BY 4.0

During his address to participants of a religious procession on Alexander Nevsky Square, the patriarch spoke about temptations and warned against everything Western.

After the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, the governors of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, Alexander Beglov and Alexander Drozdenko, took the stage.

The patriarch felt unwell after the event ended. He was escorted to an ambulance where he received medical assistance.

Those who believe in AI will face apocalypse

On September 11, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia said that those who lost their religious faith in the era of artificial intelligence (AI) would face an apocalypse.

"If humanity wants to be happy in the future, it must be religious… If humanity loses religious faith, especially in the context of the growth of technologies associated with the emergence of artificial intelligence, then we are truly entering the era of the apocalypse,” the patriarch said speaking at the tenth St. Petersburg International Cultural Forum, RIA Novosti reports.

In his opinion, AI may lead to a huge technological breakthrough, but it may also pose a huge threat, "like an atomic bomb.”

"If progress does not occur at this level of human existence, moral and spiritual, we will lose the battle to artificial intelligence, and many other battles,” he concluded.

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Kirill or Cyril is a Russian Orthodox bishop. He became Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus' and Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church on 1 February 2009. Prior to becoming Patriarch, Kirill was Archbishop (later Metropolitan) of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, and also Chairman of the Russian Orthodox Church's Department for External Church Relations. He has been a permanent member of the Holy Synod since 1989. A close ally of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Kirill has described Putin's rule as "a miracle of God". According to Putin, Kirill's father baptized him. During his tenure as Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus', Kirill has brought the Russian Orthodox Church closer to the Russian state. Kirill's relationship with Bartholomew I of Constantinople, Ecumenical Patriarch and the spiritual leader of Eastern Orthodox Christians worldwide, has been tense.