In the name of brotherhood

“I sincerely hope my stay in this country, and my meeting with the bishops and the faithful of the Catholic Church in France will be fruitful and contribute to the progress of dialogue between Orthodox and Catholics, in Europe and in the world”, declared Alexei II, Patriarch of Moscow and of all the Russias, in Strasbourg Cathedral, on Monday 1st October, at the start of his visit to France. Invited by Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, President of the French Bishops’ Conference, the Patriarch was able to meet the faithful of the Russian Orthodox Church during his visit. In Strasbourg he was received by the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe. On Wednesday 3 October, he met with Cardinal Ricard and with the President of the French Republic Sarkozy in Paris. Below we trace the most important stages of this “ecumenical” and European journey. STRASBOURG . The Patriarch was welcomed by the Catholic Archbishop of the city, the Right Rev. JEAN-PIERRE GRALLET who offered him a dinner at which representatives of the Protestant communities were also present. The Archbishop then accompanied Alexei to the cathedral of Strasbourg where he was awaited by a large congregation of over a thousand people for a prayer service and a concert of Russian religious music. In his address the Patriarch said: “in the world today each believer has an enormous responsibility and a difficult mission: that of witnessing to his faith. It is good that Catholics and Orthodox can unite their efforts and work together. We can and must affirm the Christian values together, in the face of rejection and indifference”. “Through you, Your Holiness – said Archbishop Grallet – we are honoured to welcome this evening the great Tradition of the East and its multiplicity of mystical, patristic and liturgical riches. Through your person, we welcome and greet with profound respect the Church of persecution and silence. Persuaded as we are, in common with the great Pope John Paul II, that Europe would not be complete without its two lungs, of East and West, we have decided to unite our forces to respond to the great challenge” of ensuring that “the heritage of Christian values entrusted to us be not traduced or rejected by European culture”. AT THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE . “We think that relegating religion outside the public sphere is unacceptable. It’s time to recognize that the religious motivation has the right to exist everywhere, including the public sphere”, declared Alexei II speaking to the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe at the invitation of its President RENÉ VAN DER LINDEN . “It was within a Christian system – pointed out the Patriarch – that the vision of the high dignity of the human person was forged”. “Yet today we are faced by a rift between rights and morality and this rift represents a threat for European civilization. We can see it in a new generation of rights that are being asserted in contradiction of morality or in the fact that some human rights are used to justify immoral conduct”. “If we ignore the moral rules – said the Patriarch to the assembly – we also ignore freedom. For morality is freedom in action”. In his speech the Patriarch also referred to the danger of terrorism: “As we know, Europe and the whole world are today threatened by extremists and terrorists, many of whom wear religious masks. These destructive forces grow in the fields of religious ignorance and immorality. That’s why I strongly believe that the new generations must have access, if they wish, to studies on their religious tradition at school, just as they have a need to know the other faiths as the basis for peaceful co-existence”. The Patriarch then urged a dialogue between cultures in which the representatives of the religious traditions and secular culture could be actively involved. I think the Council of Europe, which is a place of dialogue between European values, could become an excellent forum in which this dialogue could happen”. PARIS . The Patriarch of Moscow was received by Cardinal JEAN-PIERRE RICARD who gave a lunch in his honour, attended by 26 leaders of the Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant Church. In his welcoming address, the cardinal spoke of the deep ecumenical experience shared by the representatives of the Churches within the Council of Christian Churches in France. “I hope – he said – that this journey will strengthen the links of evangelical brotherhood between our Churches”. He ended his speech by expressing a hope: “You know that many Catholics hope that in future, at an appropriate time, there may be a meeting between you and Pope Benedict XVI. If this meeting takes place – said Ricard – it could be the common point of departure for a long journey to be pursued together in the service of God and of man. May this journey [of yours] to France help to give an impulse to this dynamic of brotherhood!”.