Posted on 05/05/2006 5:53:21 PM PDT by NYer
VIENNA, Austria, MAY 5, 2006 (Zenit.org).- The contribution of Christians is indispensable to restore Europe's soul, Catholics and Orthodox affirmed in an unprecedented meeting on culture in Vienna.
"We believe that Christians, preaching the hope brought by Christ's resurrection, united together with people of other faiths and convictions, can help everyone to live in an ethically grounded, just and peaceful society," the participants stated in the final message of the meeting. The three-day meeting ended today.
This was the first time that the Holy See organized a symposium such as this with the Orthodox Patriarchate of Moscow.
Cardinal Poupard, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, and Orthodox Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, president of the Department of External Relations of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Moscow, presided over the meeting.
The meeting began Wednesday and was attended by lay and religious experts chosen jointly by the Vatican and the Patriarchate of Moscow.
Father Bernard Ardura, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Culture, presented the conclusions of the meeting today.
According to the participants, the present crisis the process of European integration is undergoing is due to the failure to adopt the Constitutional Treaty of the European Union.
However, for Catholics and Orthodox, the statement said, "the crisis that splits Europe is of a cultural order: Its Christian identity is being diluted. The situation of European peoples is characterized by man's profound doubt about himself: He knows what he can do, but does not know who he is."
Hedonism
This crisis, the participants acknowledged, has "dramatic demographic consequences: the rejection of children, unions without a future, trial marriages, homosexual unions, the refusal to share life with a person in marriage."
"All this is a genuine European demographic suicide, in the name of egoism, and hedonism," the message stated.
To respond to these challenges, the participants "agreed to give an important role to the exciting mission of education and formation."
"All education is discovery of a heritage that arouses love and recognition. In this way, we will be able to contribute to rediscover the Christian roots," the statement said.
Both Catholics and Orthodox agreed the need to educate Christians "to present Christian values in a comprehensible manner: The pastoral program on culture depends on this."
"Prefer Nothing to the Love of Christ" is the motto proposed to "find ways of synergy, common witness of the faith for a generous new evangelization of Europe, that economic giant but spiritual dwarf."
According to the participants, this "common witness concerns especially the areas affected by the destruction of the family, bioethics, and the domains of the social doctrine of the Church."
The Vienna-based Pro Oriente Foundation sponsored the event, along with the Bradley Foundation of the United States.
The church goers of Europe do it on Friday and point east.
May the disciples of St. Andrew and those of St. Peter join forces to fight the Satanic threat that is destroying Europe.
Legend has it that St. Andrew evangelized in what is now Ukraine.
I prefer the disciples of Christ, but I don't want to debate theology on this go-round. What's happening in Europe currently is terribly dangerous from a geo-pol perspective. The Christians have fallen so far away, have quit having kids, have imported muslims to do their laundry, and basically worship at the altar of the BBC. We can see in our streets today what happens when a minority perceives they are being "kept down". Khadafi recently said that Europe is going to become muslim very shortly without firing a shot (paraphrasing) and that really gives me pause.
You seem to miss the point. I was saying that I hope the Roman Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church will reuinite and turn back the menace.
Indeed. We have a great deal to lose but not being united in the face of secularism and Mohammedism.
IMO, compromising one's theology, and presummably salvation, to combat a common foe wouldn't do well to fill the pews. It is very likely that the die hards that are still attending services on both sides are the most strident of believers in their particular faiths. Seriously, you either believe the way you believe or you don't.
No theological compromise is needed. As an Eastern-rite Catholic, I am living proof that one can be Eastern Orthodox, but be in union with Rome.
It's not the same as between Protestants and Catholics. BXVI's theology is heavily infuenced by Russian Orthodoxy to begin with.
There are already a small number of Russian Byzantine Catholics.
http://www.byzantinecatholic.org/Heritage/RussCath.html
Dear PravKnight and Fellow Freepers in Christ,
It is my ardent prayer as a "South Asian Catholic of Portuguese Descent" that the Roman Catholic Church,the Russian Orthodox and the Greek Orthodox Church will reunite asap or else as Freeper Straight Vermonter there is much which will be lost.
How odd I was on a web site last week that had a large feature on the Missionary Activities of Saint Andrew in what is now Ukraine as well as The Russian Federation.
Good posts Freeper PravKnight. BTW, Does Pravknight stand for something ?
With Islam rapidly spreading in all parts of Western Europe -- I pray and hope that the Catholic Church and The Orthodox Churches will reunite before it is too late to save Europe from becoming an Islamic Continent.
I can certainly see that already happening in the United Kingdom where Moslems account for 14-15% of the Population of the City of LONDON and that includes the Metropolitan Areas of London as well as the Suburbs.
In the Midlands, it is much, much, worse. You have Muezzins waking up the average Briton from 4.00 in the morning in Cities like Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield etc which have large numbers of Moslems.
I fear that the United Kingdom could become a Moslem Majority Country by 2015 -- the way things are going there.
Prav is short for Pravoslavnaya, which is Church Slavonic for Orthodox.
Dear pravkight,
Many Thanks for the information. It will be my ardent prayer from now on that "The Eastern Orthodox Churches" will be reunited once more with The See of Peter in the near future.
It is very important for this to take place in my humble opinion.
A Blessed Good Shepherd Sunday to you and to your Family.
I think Vatican II set the foundation for reunion with its emphasis upon the Church as communion and acknowledgment that Latin theology and Catholicism are not exclusive to each other.
Much work still needs to be done, especially in the area of studying pre-schism ecclesiology. The Orthodox will accept the papacy having no more authority than it was universally recognized as having during the First Millenium.
Roman Curialism is one area that would need to be addressed as well as the place of autocephaly, meaning the right of the Eastern patriarchates to independently select and install their own bishops, in the Church. It was the norm prior to the schism.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.