Orthodox Church worried about Europe's future spiritual health
I found these two stories and they are quite short, so I will reprint them here:
Patriarch for cooperation of Orthodox Christians and Catholics
03.05.2006, 19.27
MOSCOW, May 3 (Itar-Tass) -- Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia called on Orthodox Christians and Catholics “to take a stand jointly in defence of the fundamental values of Christianity.” This call is contained in the message of Alexy II to the international conference “Give Soul to Europe. The Mission and Responsibility of the Churches” that opened in Vienna on Wednesday.
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church believes that Christians should “remind to contemporaries that the Christian preachment of the love of God and of man as the image of God is the source of the noble aspirations which are to Europe’s credit – to care for one’s neighbor, to respect freedom of man and to be tolerant of the opinion of others.”
Orthodox Metropolitan warns Europe against abandoning Christian roots
VIENNA. May 3 (Interfax) - The Russian Orthodox Church believes
that Europe's abandonment of its Christian roots could ultimately lead
European society to shocks comparable to those that Russia experienced
under the Bolsheviks, Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad
has said.
"Russia's history in the 20th century should serve as a warning for
contemporary Europe: the abandonment of spiritual and cultural
foundations on which this or that civilization is based could pose a
serious threat to civilization itself," Father Kirill said at an
international conference in Vienna on Wednesday.
"We worry that, by losing the link with Christianity, Europe might
finally come to forms of pressure on or even suppression of an
individual that have always been alien to it," he said.
Amen - especially with cooperation with our Catholic brethren. As a side, anyone wanna hasten to guess from whence the "pressure" and "supression" may come? Hmmmm...
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Fundamentalist Christians! What do I win? You mean it's not them? But the media told me that we have nothing to fear except Christians. I'm so confused.
Some Roma families are too scared to go into St Petersburg
Racist killings in Russia are "out of control", according to a report by international human rights watchdog Amnesty International.
The report into violent racism shows that at least 28 people were killed and 366 were assaulted in 2005.
This year there have already been a number of high-profile cases, including the death of nine-year-old Tajik girl.
Amnesty condemns discrimination by the authorities and a failure to properly record or investigate racist crimes.
Russia's police and prosecutors need to tackle head-on the growing scourge of violent racism in Russia
Kate Allen
Amnesty International
Attacks that stain Russia
The Amnesty report, entitled "Russian Federation: Violent racism out of control", includes examples of police and prosecutors routinely classifying murders and serious assaults by skinhead extremists as lesser crimes of "hooliganism".
Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen said racist killings and violent attacks against foreigners, visible ethnic minorities and anti-racist campaigners in Russia were out of control.
"Some Russian authorities are turning a blind eye," she said. "Instead of seeing only 'hooliganism' in vicious organised attacks on students from African, south-east Asian countries and non-Slavic Russians from Chechnya, Russia's police and prosecutors need to tackle head-on the growing scourge of violent racism in Russia."
She said President Vladimir Putin's government should adopt a comprehensive "plan of action" to combat racism and anti-Semitism.
Protests
Cases highlighted in the Amnesty report include the killing of nine-year-old Tajik girl Khursheda Sultonov.
Living with race hate
She was attacked with other members of her family in St Petersburg in February 2004 by a gang. Khursheda was stabbed nine times in the chest, stomach and arms and died at the scene.
Another victim was Vu Anh Tuan, a 20-year-old Vietnamese student, stabbed to death in October 2004 by a gang of 18 skinheads near a metro station in St Petersburg.
Dmitri Krayukhin, head of anti-racist organisation United Europe, told Amnesty he had received threats to "cut off your head".
He has repeatedly been denied protection from the authorities in Orel, western Russia.
The report also heard from members of the Roma community who have stopped travelling into St Petersburg city centre, having been the victims of attacks.
Russian citizens and foreigners living in the big cities have led demonstrations against the attacks and the authorities' failure to tackle the problem.
"The report into violent racism shows that at least 28 people were killed and 366 were assaulted in 2005."
And the Orthodox Church regularly sees priests preaching in favor of such things on sunday mornings? The teachings of Jesus can be even remotely made to justify such things? Frankly these stats in a nation as big as Russia are somewhat unimpressive.
Last week there were 48 Jihadist attacks (violence done in the name of Islam) in which 199 people were killed and 329 were seriously injured. In April of this year, 826 people were killed in the name of Allah.
Besides, Russia is a part of Europe and her religious leaders have EVERY right to concern themselves with the spiritual health and future of that region.
Also if you could elaborate your point, that would be helpful.
Paige: Huzzah! Well said.
However, it has been requested that I identify myself and give my opinion on this important topic, so I will do both.
First, let me say that my opinion is based on my experiences in Italy, and I am going off of that experience. I really don’t know much about Russia and so I probably should not generalize from my experience in Italy and say that something like that is happening in Russia, but I am going to do it anyway. I also want to say I don’t have all that much experience in Italy and that my generalizations about the Catholic Church in Italy are just that, generalizations. They are many many good Catholic priests and good Catholic people in Italy, there just so happens to be many more dunderheads.
In my experience what I see happening in Italy is that there is a backlash against Islamic immigrants and lots of xenophobia, fear, and hatred against Muslims going around. Italians are also converting to Islam at an alarming rate. The Catholic leadership has seen this, and rather than own up to the fact that they have been poor shepherds, teachers, and leaders of the flock, some are reacting in anger and being resentful of the fact that they have to deal with competition. What could be an amazing opportunity for dialogue and reexamination is turning into a toxic environment where some inept Catholics are using fear to justify their inability to engage the new Islamic arrivals. Most of these people are woefully ignorant of Islam. They may know all about the bad side of Islam like the sinister Osama bin-Laden, but know nothing about the good side of Islam like the saintly Amr Khaled (who, by the way, has FAR more influence in the Arab world than Osama could ever dream of.) They think that all Muslims are like the terrorists they see on the news, while at the same time the Muslims they meet on the street are far more devout, gentle, and good then they would ever dream of being. Many Italians are getting the idea that to be modest, virtuous and loving you need to leave the Catholic Church and are converting to Islam because they see the good behavior of their neighbors. And who is to blame? Is it the Islamic immigrants who put their neighbors to shame, or is it a lazy and overindulged “Catholic” culture with it’s inept leadership who are simply unable to enter into an intelligent conversation regarding religion with the new Islamic minorities?
All of this has created a situation where well meaning church leaders will say things like, “the abandonment of spiritual and cultural foundations on which this or that civilization is based could pose a serious threat to civilization itself” and then people who are fanatical anti-immigration nationalist “Catholics” will use these statements to create fear and hatred for the Islamic minorities and even incite violence against them. These so called “Catholics” honestly scare the shit out of me and remind me that not long ago Italy was fighting right along side the Nazis in Libya. I think we need to be careful when making grand statements about the threats against Europe’s “Christian culture” because they can be used to avoid looking at the ways that our church has failed society. Also such statements are being used, and have been used, to incite hatred for “the enemy” (which usually ends up being Europe’s Islamic immigrants).
That is why I posted the article about the rise of racism in Russia. Not to criticize the statements made, but just to caution. There are those in every religion who will use their religion or the threat to their religion as a way to justify horrific violence. (Just read the Old Testament or some of the things said by terrorists.)
Imran Currah
One thing I ought to point out, the Russian Hierarchs were NOT the ones to say that Islam would be the source of "pressure" and "supression"...that was more me.
I think you are spot on in saying that the "blame" ought not to be laid on Muslim immigrants, but on the Churches that exist there and have somehow allowed a spiritual vacuum to grow over the last century or more. Shame on them and shame on them for not properly stepping up to the plate and taking responsibility.
Amr Khaled (who, by the way, has FAR more influence in the Arab world than Osama could ever dream of.)
I hope you are right. I really really do. If you are, frankly, more Muslims need to step up to THEIR plate and make that case known. We WANT to hear their voices. As it is we hear a great deal of Koranic quotes from Osama and his ilk and precious few from the other side. Like European Churches need to take their lumps, so does Islam...it faces a crisis and they need to own up to their issues and quit playing the VERY SAME blame game by looking west. George Bush isn't quoting the Koran, Osama is. If he is a brutal violent misunderstander of Islam, we want to hear Muslims saying it loud and clear and we want to see them taking active and strong steps to overcome his dark message. Just as we expect European Christians to own up to their failings as opposed to blaming immigrants.
There are those in every religion who will use their religion or the threat to their religion as a way to justify horrific violence.
Surely so...but I will always argue, Imran that it is much harder for a Christian terrorist to include quotes from Jesus in his edicts than it is for Osama to do so with the Quaran.
Anyway...I am glad to hear from you. I thought you'd abandoned me as an infidel (JK). Please email when you have time.