His Holiness Patriarch Alexy greets participants in the International Conference ‘Give a Soul to Europe. Mission and Responsibility of the Churches’
Vienna, Austria, 3-5 May 2006

The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church sent the following greetings to the participants in the International Conference ‘Give a Soul to Europe. Mission and Responsibility of the Churches’ being held in Vienna on May 3-5.

Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad read out the text.

Your Eminences, Your Graces, dear participants in the Conference!

I cordially greet all those participating in this forum at the invitation of the Pontifical Council for Culture and the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations.

It is remarkable that representatives of the Russian Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Churches have gathered in Vienna in May when we still cherish Paschal feelings. The radiant feast of the Resurrection of Christ reminds us of the unforgettable foundation of our faith, of our common roots and of that what should unite Christians of East and West, as Apostle Peter wrote about the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, ‘God raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God’ (1 Pet 1:21).

The theme of the present conference is ‘Give a Soul to Europe. Mission and Responsibility of the Churches’. The European civilization is based on Christian values. This is an indisputable fact whether secular people acknowledge it or not. We, people of faith, should remind our contemporaries that Christian preaching about love to God and to human person as His image is a genuine source of noble aspirations for which Europe is renowned, such as care for the neighbour, respect of human rights and tolerance to an opinion of the other person. An authoritative hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church St. Philaret of Moscow said in the 19th century: ‘How can they think that the truth of God and the truth of Christ’s is something foreign to the natural truth, which is helpful for human person and human society, and that the latter can live without the former as in the union with it?’

Any values and ideals, however bright and encouraging they would seem, can lose their meaning without being linked to the primary source and remain isolated within the strict frame of self-sufficient theories under which people sometimes try to place the variety of the world created by God. Regrettably, the history of Europe is full of such sad examples. We, Christians of East and West, can show another way to the development of European thought today. Let the feet of our compatriots be guided to the knowledge of God and His holy will, which the people of Europe seek so intensely, despite all attempts to oust religion to the margin of social life.

I am convinced that our Churches remaining loyal to the apostolic tradition in the matters that concern the foundations of Christian philosophy of life should come forward together in defence of the fundamental Christian values. I believe it will bring hope to the millions of people who earnestly seek ‘his kingdom and his righteousness’ (Mt 6:33) and do not want to be content with the mundane values of the ‘consumer society’. I see the main task of the present meeting of hierarchs, clergymen, theologians, thinkers and public figures of the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches in our joint message to those for whom Christ and the Gospel are the highest value and to those who are just seeking to know the truth.

I wish you all the blessed success and God’s help in achieving the goals of your representative assembly.

+ALEXY,
PATRIARCH OF MOSCOW AND ALL RUSSIA

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• His Holiness Patriarch Alexy greets participants in the International Conference ‘Give a Soul to Europe. Mission and Responsibility of the Churches’
  Vienna, Austria, 3-5 May 2006