The slav richness

The feast of Saints Cyril and Methodius, the brothers who evangelised the Slav peoples, and also translated the Gospel into Cyrillic script, was celebrated on 14 February. To mark the occasion, Cardinal FRANC RODÈ , President of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, presided over a eucharistic celebration in the basilica of San Clemente in Rome, in the presence of the Slav community in the eternal city and more particularly of the Pontifical Slovene College. An ecumenical touch was also given to the celebration by the presence of a Bulgarian Orthodox monk, Father KILMENT BOBCHEV, in charge of the Bulgarian Orthodox community in RomeYour Eminence, the feast of Saints Cyril and Methodius and, shortly, that of St. Benedict of Norcia, re-propose to Europe the Christian message that is increasingly being placed in question today…“The Western Europe of St. Benedict and the Eastern Europe of Saints Cyril and Methodius possess a common spiritual heritage that is still relevant for our times and still a living reality in our hands. It must be revived in the basic structures of European societies because only thus will united Europe have a secure future”. Even in the face of the secularism and relativism that are threatening to confine faith to the private sphere and now risk also undermining the Christian tradition in Eastern Europe?“The Slav peoples must not be passive in the EU and in European civilization. They have a great inner richness and sensibility, a strong moral sense and a richness of soul and heart that must be transmitted to the ‘old’ Europeans. Theirs is a spiritual heritage that in expressed in the great literature of the Slav peoples, in music, in song. This is the sign of a particular sensibility and nobility. The values they have maintained over the years, also amid great suffering, must now be donated to the other peoples of Europe. They are the universal values that support the whole continent”. After the last enlargement of 1st January, with the accession of Bulgaria and Romania, are you in favour of the membership of other countries such as Croatia and Macedonia?“The new members of the EU must be gradually accepted in real terms, even if some time is needed to transmit the benefits of Europe to the new peoples. It would be a mistake to think of a two-speed Europe. The EU countries must progress together and have an ever-deeper and ever-present consciousness of the values of European civilization: respect for the person, human dignity, freedom of conscience. This process is slowly going ahead also in new countries such as Croatia and Macedonia that are waiting to become members. I think their place is undoubtedly within the European Union, as also other countries that have the same historic destiny as those that already form part of the Community”.Father Bobchev, what role do the Slav peoples have in European integration?“The Slav peoples, disciples of the brother Saints Cyril and Methodius, must have a decisive role in the real reunification of Europe, which is essentially spiritual. The heritage of the brother saints obliges us to work for reunification also at the religious level between those that are closest to each other, in other words Orthodox and Catholics. There are good reasons to remember Saints Cyril and Methodius in the process of the cultural reunification of Europe that derives from the spiritual reunification”.