Patriarch Kirill said he has no friends and never gets a day off, Interfax reported Tuesday.

"The patriarch cannot have friends; he has his flock, and friendship in the everyday sense is practically impossible because he spends all his energy on being a pastor," the head of the Russian Orthodox Church said in an interview Monday with Moldovan, Romanian and Russian television channels in Chisinau, Moldova.

"Solitude will accompany me to the end of my days as patriarch, just as it did all my predecessors."

The patriarch said he never has a chance to relax, tackling the papers that pile up on his desk when he's not traveling or holding meetings. "I have to read up to 300 pages per day," he said.

(MT)