Russian Orthodox leader: American, European de-Christianization is ‘apocalyptic’
May 27, 2016
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church received a delegation from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople on May 24 and lamented the secularization of Europe and the United States.
“We are deeply worried to see what is going on in the Christian world,” said Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, who referred to the “ongoing de-Christianization of the European and American civilization” as “an apocalyptic scene: sin is affirmed by law.”
“As you know, we underwent a period of state atheism,” he said in reference to over seven decades of Soviet Communist rule. “However, the moral paradigm remained Christian in its major aspects. This is what saved us: our literature and fine arts were permeated with Christian ideas, hence the morality of our people remained Christian.”
Patriarch Kirill added that today the Russian Orthodox Church “has universities of her own, as well as over 40 seminaries, a thousand monasteries, Orthodox TV channels, journals, newspapers.”
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Posted by: Gregory108 -
May. 28, 2016 4:06 PM ET USA
Maybe we should instead focus on Ukrainian good example. When the Communists came to power, the Russian Church generally capitulated, joining the government, only too willing to seize Ukrainian Catholic churches and lands with not a peep heard in defense, since Ukraine "was returning to its Orthodoxy" and to "Mother Russia." Even now, the ROC continues to give Christian cover to Putin's exploits. And Ukrainian people and hierarchs? They were tortured; many died in defense of their Catholicism.
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Posted by: bernie4871 -
May. 28, 2016 9:35 AM ET USA
Orthodox Solzhenitsyn is proof positive that the fire of adversity refines character. His Russian reflective personality adds a certain 'heat' to his furnace. His life should be studied by every person who is gravely concerned by the condition of Western Civ today. Pray God we do not have to go through an analogous experience of repression and degradation as the Russians, but we will not survive as a Nation without a profound change. The irony of Russian good example is hard to swallow.
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Posted by: jeremiahjj -
May. 27, 2016 5:54 PM ET USA
I wonder if His Holiness now considers the seizure of Eastern Catholic churches a sin?
