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ISSUES: CHRISTIANS AND THE WORLD

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Europe and the intimidations of secularism - Part 2
by Hilarion Alfeyev
Archbishop of Volokolamsk
Translated from
the 12/2/09 issue of




The Russian Orthodox Church takes the position that every State should have the right to legislate what it believes about matrimony and the family, on questions of bioethics, on educational models.

The countries with an Orthodox tradition, for example, will not accept laws that legalize euthanasia, homosexual marriage, drug trafficking, brothels, pornography and the like.

Moreover, we believe that every country should have the right to develop its own model of Church-State relations. Legislation which limits itself only to guaranteeing religious freedom to its citizens creates the conditions for 'savage competition' among religions and confessions.

We should create, together with religious freedom, the conditions for which the democratic freedoms of an individual, including his right to religious self-determination, do not conflict with the rights of national communities to preserve their own integrity, their fidelity to their own traditions, social ethic, and religion.

These are particularly important elements in the creation of regulations governing movements of a destructive and extremist religious character, as well as when there is proof of violation of religious freedom by traditional religions whose expansion in some parts of Europe threaten the public and social order.

In many European democracies, religious freedom for the individual is balanced by protections given to traditional confessions, at both the juridical and social levels. it is necessary to conserve the variety of models in Church and State relations that Europe has inherited in her history, allowing single nations and single peoples to freely determine the degree of compenetration between Church and State, of their cooperation in the social and humanitarian fields, as well as in education, culture and others.

What has been said shows how the Russian Orthodox Church has already taken into consideration the problems that concern the future of Europe, and how these can be inserted into the founding documents of the European Union and in European legislation.

The dialog between the Russian Orthodox Church and European political institutions is only just beginning. It is to be hoped that this dialog will lead to reciprocal enrichment and that the Russian Orthodox Church itself can benefit from a close collaboration with European political institutions.

For the Russian Orthodox Church, which seeks to define its relationship with modern society comprehensively, such a dialog is essential.

Allow me now to get back to the subject of European integration and to offer some observations regarding the possible practical consequences if the secularized value system is imposed on the European Union.

Where no guarantees are given to religious communities, the collisions and confrontations between religious institutions, on one hand, and the secularized world on the other, will be inevitable.

These encounters could take place at various levels relative to various questions, but it is not difficult to predict that, in most cases, they will have to do with morality, which the religious community, on one hand, and modern society, on the other, understand differently.

There is already a striking divergence between the value system in traditional religions and those that characterize the secularized world.

'The Foundation of Social Doctrine' is not a manual for private use: it is a public document in which the Russian Orthodox Church expresses its official positions openly and explicitly.

The language of the document is different from that of secularized society: the notion of sin, for example, is practically absent from the vocabulary of secularism.

Nonetheless, the Church maintains that it has the full right to express its positions publicly, not only when they are in concord with generally accepted opinion but even in discord.

There are so many positions articulated in the Foundation of the Social Doctrine of the Russian Orthodox Church that may not correspond to the standards of secularism.

For example, the Church considers abortion “a grave sin’, equivalent to homicide, and states that “from the moment of conception, any intervention against the life of the future human being is criminal”. [NB: Note the terminology ‘future human being’ for the fetus, who is already a human being, by Catholic standards].

The Church also rejects as “against nature, and morally unacceptable” so-called ‘maternal surrogacy’, along with every form of extra-corporeal insemination.

Human (egg) donation is considered “an unequivocal challenge to the nature of the human being himself and to the image of God imprinted on him, from which derive the freedom and uniqueness of each person”. Fetal therapy is considered ‘absolutely unacceptable”. Euthanasia is condemned as ‘a form of homicide or suicide’.

Sex change is considered ‘a rebellion against the Creator’ that the Church does not accept: if someone with a gender different from what he was born with presents himself for baptism, he will be baptized “according to the sex that he was born with”.

Since the Orthodox Church holds these positions internally, presumably they would be tolerated by modern secularized society (the Roman Catholic Church has similar positions).

But what would happen if one single country adopted any of these positions and orients its legislation accordingly once Europe has been integrated? Will this be considered a deviation from common European parameters?

So far, every country in Europe has had the right to establish its own standards relating to human morality. It is of crucial importance that in the new Europe, every nation continues to enjoy this right, and that no leveling standard shall be imposed on the members of an enlarged European Union.

It is of equally crucial importance that Churches and religious communities have the right to express their positions on moral questions not only in private but also in public, without being accused of interfering with established norms, threatening the minorities, or promoting a spirit of intolerance.

The right of Churches to follow their own canonical traditions must be recognized, and to prefer them to secularized laws. in cases when there are super-impositions or evident contradiction.

According to the Social Doctrine of the Russian Orthodox Church, “when human law completely rejects the divine standard which has absolute value, replacing it with something contrary, then the latter ceases to be law and becomes illegal whatever juridical vestments it may wear”.

Therefore, “in everything that concerns the exclusively earthly terrain of things, the Orthodox Christian must obey the law, no matter how imperfect and unfavorable it is. Nonetheless, whenever respect for the law threatens his eternal salvation and requires apostasy or the obligation to commit a sin in the eyes of God and one’s neighbor, the Christian is called on to profess with daring his own faith, for the love of God and his truth, and for the salvation of his own soul, for eternal life”.

“He must denounce with legal means the clear violation committed by society or by the State against the laws and commandments of God. And if such act shows itself to be impossible or ineffective, then he must go on to civil disobedience” (iv, 9).

Obviously, disobedience to civil law is an extreme measure that a local Church may adopt in exceptional circumstances. Nonetheless, it is a possibility that should not be excluded a priori, in case a system of secularized values becomes the only one operating in Europe.

Precisely for the purpose of avoiding this possibility, European legislation should be inclusive enough to allow the representation of a plurality of positions, including those of the major European religious communities.

In 1992, Jacques Delors, as President of the European Commission, said: “We shall not build Europe only on legal foundations or on the basis of economic knowledge… If, in the next decade, we will not have given a soul to Europe, if we shall not be capable of giving it spirituality and meaning, then we will have lost the game”.

In saying this, Delors very likely had in mind the need to recognize the spiritual dimension of European integration, and not the need to invent some sort of ‘European spirituality’.

Europe certainly has had a soul and a spiritual tradition for centuries. It is this tradition that must be rediscovered and given back to Europe, at a time when all traditional values have been placed into question.

Another ex-President of the European Commission, Jacques Santer, stated that “Europe is inspired by humanism that is based on its Judeo-Christian legacy” and that “this fact must be reflected in its declaration of fundamental rights”.

Agreeing with this statement on principle, I wish to specify that the importance of the Judeo-Christian legacy is not limited to having given form to the civilization of humanism: both the Jewish tradition and the Christian tradition are living traditions, and their value, along with that of the Islamic tradition and those of other major religions, must be fully recognized and respected.

It is not right to indiscriminately absorb all traditions into one ‘common denominator’ since their value systems do not always coincide with the element advanced by unification.

Although the Churches and various religious traditions in Europe may have different positions on single problems posed by modernity, they are united in asking that they be assured the right to preserve and publicly express the values they believe in.

These traditions have a vital importance in the process of European integration. A great part of the Churches of Europe, through the Conference of European Churches and the Catholic Commission of the Episcopal Conferences in the European Community, have formulated common proposals regarding Churches and religious communities for inclusion in the Constitutional Treaty of the European Union:

The European Union recognizes and respects the right of Churches and religious communities to organize themselves freely in accordance with their national laws, their convictions and their statues, and to pursue their own religious objectives in the context of basic rights.

The European Union respects the specific identity of the Churches and religious communities and their contribution to public life, and will maintain an institutional dialog with them.

The European Union respects and will not act with prejudice on the status of the Churches and religious communities with respect to the national legislations of the member States. The Union will likewise respect the status of philosophical and non-confessional organizations.


These articles, submitted to the attention of the Convention on the Future of Europe so they may be included in the appropriate sections of the future European Constitution, reflect the identical position of the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church, the Protestant Churches and other Christian Churches.

I believe that solidarity among European Christians should be increasingly made manifest as the process of defining a common system of European values makes progress.

Only together will Christians, along with the representatives of other traditional religions in Europe, be able to safeguard their own identity, fight against ‘militant secularism’ and face the other challenges of modernity.

The Russian Orthodox Church is ready to collaborate at the interconfessional level, at the inter-religious level, as well as at the political, social and other levels with all those who are not indifferent to the future identity of Europe, with all who believe that traditional values are an integral part of such an identity.

Finally, I wish to comment on the recent sentence of the European Court of Human Rights against Italy, namely, the prohibition against the display of the Cross in Italian schools.

This sentence goes against the right of every State to preserve its own traditions and its own identity, and thus offends the inviolable principle of authentic pluralism of traditions. It is an unacceptable demonstration of militant secularism.

The activities of the European Court should not be turned into cynical farce. The ultra-liberal attitude which prevailed in the adoption of that decision should not dominate in Europe.

The origins of Europe are Christian. The Cross is a universal symbol, and it is absolutely unacceptable that, in order to follow ultra-liberal and atheistic standards, Europe and its social institutions should be deprived of the symbols that for centuries have formed and united its peoples. The Cross is not a symbol of violence but of conciliation.

I think that in all these fields, we can collaborate with the Catholic Church in defending the Christian tradition in the face of militant secularism and aggressive liberalism.

In this context, I wish in conclusion to pose the following question: Are we constructing a Europe that is completely atheistic and secularist, where God is expelled from society and religion is pushed into the ghetto of the private, or shall the new Europe be a true home for different religions, thus becoming authentically inclusive and pluralist?

I think this is the question that the Churches and religious communities in Europe should be asking, a question which the politicians have the duty to answer. This is the question that the dialog among religious communities and European political institutions should focus on.

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