Bishop Hilarion called for the creation of an alliance with Catholics and “pre-Chalcedonian” churches to protect “traditional Christianity” from the “challenges of modernity”

Speaking at the forum "Dialogue of Civilizations", held on about. Rhodes, Bishop Hilarion (Alfeev) of Vienna and Austria , stated that today there are two branches of Christianity, "and the abyss that exists today separates not so much Orthodox and Catholics, or Catholics and Protestants, as "traditionalists" and "liberals" (for all conventions of such names).

"In this situation, it seems to me necessary to consolidate the efforts of those Churches that consider themselves "Churches of Tradition", i.e. Catholics and Orthodox (including the so-called "pre-Chalcedonian" Churches), - said the representative of the Russian Orthodox Church. - I am not talking now about those serious dogmatic and ecclesiological disagreements that exist between these Churches and which should be discussed within the framework of bilateral dialogues.I am talking about the need to conclude between these Churches some kind of strategic alliance, pact, union in order to protect traditional Christianity as such - protection from all the challenges of modernity, whether either militant liberalism or militant atheism.

"We don't need a union with the Catholics, we don't need an 'intercommunion', we don't need compromises for the sake of a dubious 'rapprochement'. But we need, in my opinion, a strategic alliance, because traditional Christianity as such is being challenged," Bishop Hilarion specified.

“The liberal, relaxed “Christianity” of the Protestant communities of the North will not be able to withstand the onslaught of secularism: only firm and traditional Christianity, ready to defend its moral positions, can resist it,” the bishop believes. “In this struggle, Orthodox and Catholics could, with all the accumulated over the centuries disagreements, form a united front."

According to the bishop, the alliance he proposed "should have come to the defense, first of all, of traditional moral values, such as family, childbearing, marital fidelity. These values ​​in Europe are subjected to systematic ridicule and spitting on the part of liberals and democrats of all stripes." The speaker stated that "we have serious differences with the majority of Protestants on these issues, not to mention fundamental differences of a theological and ecclesiological nature."

Sources

• Report of Bishop Hilarion of Vienna and Austria at the IV session of the forum "Dialogue of Civilizations" // Interfax-religion. 2006. September 29.