Message to the International Conference ‘Dialogue of Cultures and Interfaith Cooperation’ September 7-9, 2006, Nizhniy Novgorod

Distinguished Participants in the Conference:

It is very gratifying that the Russian chairmanship in the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers, with which your Conference is timed, will be marked with a consideration of such an important and topical theme as dialogue of cultures and interfaith cooperation.

It is not right away that the European human rights thinking came to realize the role played by religion in the task of protection of human rights, which is a priority for the Council of Europe. Regrettably, even today some are convinced of the self-sufficiency of a human rights doctrine based exclusively on the materialistic understanding of the individual and society and focused on the interests of the individual.

This view however has been disproved by historical experience. The Preamble to the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms states that ‘the aim of the Council of Europe is the achievement of greater unity between its members’. Today it can be stated with certainty: the use of human rights in isolation from their moral basis can not only divide states but also atomize any society. That is why the implementation of human rights becomes a guarantee of peace and unity only if it is based on spiritual and ethical values.

Dialogue of cultures and preservation of their diversity is the only alternative to the crisis of the modern world order that has allowed the fruitless attempts to impose on all nations the impersonal models of political and economic development rooted in only one culture but declared universal and universally obligatory. This situation has facilitated the development of unprecedented forms of terrorism and extremism which we condemn and which should be opposed.

Faith, which is inherent in human conscience, cannot be driven away from the life of society. An evidence to it is not only the experience of the Soviet Union. It is my conviction that Western Europe will soon realize this, too, from its own experience. However, religious motivation of human actions can be not only a factor of peace but can turn into an instrument of fanaticism. Certainly, society and state should use the former opportunity, otherwise the latter one will be used by those who shun no means for achieving their low goals.

PACE Recommendation 1720 on Education and Religion, adopted in the end of 2005, states that ‘knowledge of religions is dying out’ and refers to the media’s ‘regrettable ignorance of religions’ and other realities in the continent. These disturbing remarks suggest that the peacemaking potential of religion remains unused. I hope that the recent initiatives of the Council of Europe to establish constructive relations with religious communities will help religion to stay invariably a factor of peace motivating people to ‘act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood’ as the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights appeals.

The Russian Orthodox Church has repeatedly stated that it is religious education traditional for every nation that can help prevent the spreading of radical pseudo-religious ideas. In this we are at one with other religious communities in the world. Thus, the final document of the World Summit of Religious Leaders that was held on July 3-5, 2006, in Moscow states that extremism and terrorism can be really overcome only ‘through education and moral formation’. Nobody questions the need to study safety measures when there is a threat of man-made disasters. But people’s religious world, the knowledge of which has been kept by religious traditions for centuries, is often offered for a free search ‘by means of trial and error’. These ‘errors’ however have made the entire humanity pay for them today. They are especially dangerous when made by the mass media since journalists, who often commit blasphemy because of religious ignorance, tend to stir up religious strife against their will at the cost of innocent people’s lives.

I believe these and other issues will be given an in-depth consideration by the conference which has gathered together religious leaders, representatives of international organizations, authoritative experts, state and public leaders from many countries. I wish all the participants in the conference that you may search and find ‘the things which make for peace and things with which one may edify another’ (Rom. 14:19).

+ Alexy
Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia