The 9-th
Dialogue of EPP-ED Group with the Orthodox Church
20.10.2005,
Istanbul
Statement by Latchezar Toshev
- Union of Democratic Forces,
Bulgaria
Your Eminence, Your Beatitudes, Reverent Fathers, Members of EPP-ED
Group in European Parliament, Distinguished Parliamentarians, Ladies and
Gentlemen,
I am happy indeed of the continuation of the Dialogue of the EPP-ED Group with the Orthodox Church and
the opportunity to participate in it on behalf of the Union of Democratic Forces
-Bulgaria.
Let me first of all to express my satisfaction of this continuous
initiative and the invitation extended by HAH the Ecumenical Patriarch
Bartholomew I and to express my gratitude to His Eminence Metropolitan of
France Emmanuel for his remarkable efforts as well the once of the Member of
European Parliament Alojz Peterle and the real commitment of Stephen Biller,
without which this great event would not be possible..
I'd like first of al to inform
you that following the election of Mr. Rene van der Linden as President of the Parliamentary Assembly of
the Council of Europe, one of the first decisions of the Bureau of the Assembly
under his chairmanship was the Ecumenical Patriarch to be invited to address
the Assembly which represents 800 million Europeans. The newly elected Pope
Benedict XVI will be invited as well.
As you recall in the final Declaration of the 6-th Dialogue held in Bucurest, in the year 2002, the Orthodox Churches declared their
readiness to be involved in the program of the Council of Europe for education
for Democratic Citizenship based on the Rights and Responsibilities of the
Citizens .Unfortunately-despite that the Year 2005 is declared as European
Year of Citizenship based on Education, nothing was done to extend the hand to
be taken. In this sense the visit of the Ecumenical Patriarch to the
Parliamentary
Assembly in Strasbourg
is an opportunity. It could be instrumental in addressing this issue and in
achieving concrete results through deeds, not by words.
Primary objective of the
Education was to be cognition. Then due to the tremendous" ocean "of
information, Education received a new aim- to create knowledge and skills about
how to proceed with this information when needed. And now it seems this model
is also inadequate. And the main goal of Education now is knowledge about how
to live together in a multicultural and multiconfessional society.
In this case the experience of Orthodox Christianity could be very
supportive.
Freedom as a gift of our God and
Creator is one of the core principles of the Orthodox Christians. If God is
respecting our freedom, we should respect also the freedom of the others, their
free will and free choice, protecting of course our own free will and free
choice.
This could explain why in the History of the Orthodox Church there is no
violence. In one of my visits to the Holy Mount of Athos I saw an icon where
Christ is named "Poganocrator" which means that He came to be Savior
not only for the Christians or Jews, but for the whole Mankind including the pagans,
if they would accept freely the light of God, as St. Simeon the Prophet said
when he saw Jesus Christ presented in the Temple (Luke 2:32).
The second command of our Lord Jesus Christ is to love our brothers and
even our animists. We could hate some deeds, but not human beings who are like
us-creatures of God.
It is very important.
Father (Abba/Avva) Dorotheos -one of the Orthodox Saints and writers of
6-th Century A.D. wrote in his 6-th Address that if people are closer to the
God they will be consequently closer to each other. And if they will be closer
to each other they, will consequently be closer to God. His example is a circle
in which the center is God and points around are the people.
Actually Avva Dorotheos wrote about the need for greater social cohesion
based on Christian values.
Last but not least, I'd like to remind you of the slogan of the
Bulgarian Orthodox Church given 135 years ago- here in Istanbul- "Freedom in Order and Unity in
Diversity". This is a slogan which at that time seems to be naive, today
is fully contemporary and compatible with the principles of European Union, but
which has its origin in Christianity. This could explain why the Bulgarian Church was deeply involved
in the rescue of 50 000 Bulgarian Jews during the Holocaust despite the religious
differences, and it had condemned but never persecuted the heretic's
communities during the Middle Ages.
Taking into account these examples, I would like to argue why the
involvement of the Orthodox Church in educational programs for democratic
citizenship could be helpful. And its interaction with other parts of Civil
Society could lead to good results. As you know in the New Neighborhood
Strategy of the EU, there are countries where Orthodox Churches are very
influential and they could be treated as partners by EPP-ED Group in order to introduce
Christian values into society and in order to create a better world with
greater social cohesion and greater humanity, and more just and fair than it is
now.
Some critics could argue that religious
education could destroy secular education which is a fear far from reality. It
could give cognition about Faith and its values but not Faith, which is practiced
in religious institutions. In a period of deep moral crisis and crisis of
values, which our society is facing today we could promote our values against
the concept of utilitarianism, which-according to me- is the greatest danger facing
our society! These values about we speaking today are invisible, but they are
our everything!
In the countries of Central and Eastern Europe,
religious communities suffered a lot during the totalitarian communist regimes,
which were not only cruel and criminal, but also atheistic. They wanted to
destroy not only the Church, but religion itself and the belief of people in
something superior to communist doctrine. They really wanted to spoil the Faith
of people that the Lord protects them, as it is said in Psalm 13 (-the
numeration of Psalms is as in the Orthodox Bible).
At that time churches were not allowed to have social and educational
activities. They were infiltrated by secret services agents of the political
police. Confessions were taped in order to create mistrust among believers on
the mysteries of the church and to make them distant from them. Only those who
suffered such repressions could understand entirely the meaning of the word
freedom which is so essential for the Orthodox Church. The cruelest was when
these regimes imposed pressure on Church servants making them serve the
atheistic regime. Many who did not agree to change their belief were killed and
became the new martyrs of the Church.
In the same time, there were
other bishops and priests who were not able to resist, their soul had been
really crushed. They agreed to collaborate with communist regimes. Their acts
could be considered formally as violations of Rules 6 and 81 of the Holy
Apostles and to a certain extent in some cases Rule 30, but in many cases it
was done after tremendous pressure and repression.
The key word for this Dialogue is "Truth". The Truth is that sets
people free, as it is said by our God Jesus Christ (John 8:32) .So we are
touching again upon freedom. The Truth through confession and then through
forgiveness could lead to a true community-a Community in God -i.e. to
community based on a much greater social cohesion and spiritual values and
hence reconciled to itself.
The Church as spiritual guide of society should be ahead of this
process. Those clerics, who collaborated with the communist-repressive system,
should confess this fact and be free from any further dependence on the former
political police representatives. To do this requires real spiritual strength.
It is not easy to take such a step. The example of Romanian Orthodox Church in
this respect is very good one and could be instrumental in solving this issue
once and for ever, following such kind of a public catharsis.
It is not only my view, that
without such a public catharsis, the Orthodox Church in countries which suffered communist regimes
will be unable to cooperate truly with its closest allies from the parties of
the EPP-family who are sharing the same Christian values. Even-in some cases these
priest who formerly cooperated with the communist regimes, today are still
closer to the former communist’s parties which is rather strange!
Last December 14-th, 2004; in Paris
there was hearing organized by the Political Affairs Committee of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. One of the Russian official
experts on this issue had informed and warned the Committee, that in Russia, currently
some circles among former communists are searching for a new identity and
trying to combine the doctrine of communism, xenophobia, aggressive(anti-western)
nationalism and Orthodox Christianity. The Orthodox Christianity is not
compatible with any doctrine of hate and violence, or ethnocentrism and ethnofilletism.
Religion can not be used for political purposes! In my personal opinion the
Orthodox Church should react and to stand against the creation of such a"
hybrid". We don't need the creation of a new "monster "of this
type. We should stand against such misuse of religion by former atheists.
EPP parties and Christian Democrats being secular parties and not
clerical ones were those which stood against any form of dictatorship-against Fascism,
Nazism and against Totalitarian Communism respecting values such as freedom,
solidarity and humanity, human dignity of individual, a just society and the
rule of law-with equal rights for all. In this way the EPP -family is closest to
Christianity as a whole. EPP is fighting to create the EU as a Union of values.
The roots of these values are Christian and Europe
as a whole is based on them.
Truth is also about the division
of the Church nearly 1000 years ago when the mystical body of Jesus was
crucified again by some of our ancestors in then still united Christian
Church.
The Dialogue between the
Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church started during the pontificate of the
late Pope John Paul II.
He took two very important
steps which we appreciate and I'd like to pay tribute to him in this occasion.
First of all, he had pronounced several times the
"Credo" without the contested amendment
"fileoque"("and from the Son").
And second-he was the first pope
who declared the readiness to discuss the "superiority of the pope"-the
first since the split.
In his encyclical "Ut
Unum Sint"-art.95, he calls for a discussion with the Orthodox Church on
the disputable issues.
I'd like to underline-discussion, but not
common worship before the agreement could hopefully be reached.
According to me, it is most
desirable for discussion to continue in the pontificate of the newly elected
pope Benedict XVI. Dialogue based on Truth and common understanding is of great
importance and it should continue.
Let's hope!
Thank you for you kind attention and patience!