The Russian Orthodox Church hope that the words of Alexy II are perceived by Western Europe

The Russian Orthodox Church hopes that the call to combine human rights with traditional spiritual and moral values, which became the leitmotif of the performances of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II last week in France, is perceived by Western Europe.

"The Western world (both religious and secular) heard the clear message of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy and the entire Russian Orthodox Church," said the deputy chairman of the external church relations of the Moscow Patriarchate (MPC MP) in an interview with RIA Novosti , Esevolod Chaplin, who accompanied the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church during the first visits in the history of the visit to the visitor in history. Strasbourg and Paris.

According to him, this message of the Russian Church sounded "during the presentation of the Holy PACE , and in his word in the Cathedral of Notre Dam de Paris, and in his television, and in numerous interviews, and in all the appearance of the Holy, merciful, in the highest degree of cultural, but at the same time expressing firm fidder of the truth of Christ."

“In the West, spiritual thirst is intensified today. We are familiar with this thirst, since for more than 70 years our society lived without God with totalitarianism and with the cult of man and science that dominated from the 1960s to the 1980s,” Chaplin noted.

Our society, he added, knows that life without God leads people to despair, confusion and misfortune, even if there is money, weapons, power, and "it seems to be a guaranteed future."

“Eternal moral values ​​never become obsolete. They cannot be declared part of the past. They are therefore called eternal, that there can be no future without them, it will turn into oblivion, into destruction,” the agency’s interlocutor is convinced.

“It was very necessary to say about all this to the Western world - and the Holy Patriarch brilliantly said this, clearly, honestly, without complex disasters, behind which they usually hide a lie,” Cuplin summed up.

As an eyewitness, the clergyman admitted that "many, especially the liberal politicians of the older generation," do not agree with the position of the Russian Orthodox Church.

“Well, you won’t be forcibly sweet. But the time does not work on them and their monopoly on politics and public discussion ends,” said the deputy head of the MP MP.

"It is strange in response to strong and new arguments to hear something like" it will be the way we believe, and a point. "This kind of argumentation does not live for a long time," he added.

Answering the question of what significance of the Russian Orthodox Church gives the foreign trips of his Primate as a whole, Chaplin recalled that Patriarch Alexy II “quite regularly” makes visits to different countries. In particular, he was in the UK, Germany, Austria, the USA, Japan, the countries of the Middle East, Hungary, Bulgaria, Serbia, Azerbaijan and a number of other states. Recently visited Latvia.

“Such visits, of course, bring the Orthodox churches, Christians of different faiths closer, bring the peoples closer. Therefore, we must pay tribute to his Holiness for the fact that he took over the work of a visit to France with such a rich program. This once again speaks of the openness of the Primate to communicate with people, about the readiness to hear different voices, to show participation of such participation,” said Chaplin.

According to him, in the Orthodox churches and at receptions, the Patriarch "talked with many people who felt the heat and attention of the Primate" of the Russian Orthodox Church.

A visit by the Patriarch of the famous Catholic Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris and the Orthodox prayer before the Ternov crown of Christ stored in this cathedral , Chaplin called "a powerful evidence of Orthodoxy in France."

“The Orthodox worship was attended by thousands of people, both in the temple and next to him. These were Orthodox and Catholics. And the believers of the Catholic Church told me that they touched the spiritual wealth and wisdom of Orthodoxy that day,” the agency’s interlocutor stated.

He recalled that the service was performed mainly in French and covered by French and Russian television channels - so millions of people could touch the mysterious spiritual life of the Orthodox Church.

The representative of the Moscow Patriarchate did not hear accusations of proselytism (missionaries for luring believers) by Catholics.

Answering the question of whether after this visit was a more likely meeting of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' with Pope, Chaplin noted that any contacts between the believers of the two faiths "help to change the climate in their relations for the best - and therefore can encourage someone to be a speedy resolution of problems, pelletting ulcers that bleed."

“To heal these wounds, to give churches the basis for sincere cooperation, which should replace competition, is what the meeting of the two Primate should marked itself. We need to solve difficult problems,” said the representative of the Russian Orthodox Church.

To make sure that such problems exist, according to him, it is enough to read the material in the last issue of the AiF newspaper. "It tells how believers of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the west of Ukraine are forced to pray in sheds or on the street and are not able to build temples," Chaplin explained.

Orthodox believers, according to him, continue to experience pain when they see how "from scratch, without any noticeable number of believers, the Uniate dioceses are established" ( Greco-Catholic Church ).

The second most important problem of inter -church relations is the missionary activities of Catholics among the Orthodox. "Orthodox believers are difficult to believe in the sincerity of Catholic missionaries who teach to pray in their rite of children baptized in the Orthodox Church and originating from Orthodox families," Chaplin said.

“God forbid that we can overcome existing difficulties in order to testify to Europe and the world about Christian values, which many people expect today, both in the West and in the East,” concluded a representative of the Moscow Patriarchate.