Warsaw (AsiaNews/Agencies):
Whilst the world media focused yesterday on Pussy Riot trial,
the real news of the day came from the Polish capital where
Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill and Archbishop Jozef Michalik,
president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Poland, signed
an historic joint statement calling on their respective
believers to erase centuries of violence and prejudice and work
together for a society informed by Christian witness.
Entrusting the message of reconciliation to the
protection of the Mother God, the two leaders exchanged gifts
during the special ceremony. Patriarch Kirill gave the bishops
of Poland an icon of the Mother of God of Smolensk, whilst
Archbishop Michalik gave the patriarch an icon of Our Lady of
Czestochowa.
In the
statement, the two leaders said that reconciliation is the
product of "a sincere dialogue in the hope that it will help us
to heal the wounds of the past and overcoming mutual
prejudices," sadly noting the "hostility and even struggle" as
well as the "painful experience of atheism imposed on our
nations".
In the past,
Russia invaded Poland several times. At the start of the Second
World War, Poland was invaded by both Germany and Russia. After
the war, it came under the influence of the Soviet Union, which
exerted stifling control over the two religions with Stalinism
even pitting Orthodox against Catholics.
The message noted that all Christians suffered
under atheistic regimes (Nazism and Communism) that "fought
against all forms of religion and waged an especially cruel war
with Christianity and our Churches. Victimized were millions of
innocent people, the reminder of which is numerous places of
executions and graves both on Russian and Polish soil."
Likewise, the patriarch and the archbishop called
on their communities to forgive. At the same time, "Forgiveness
does not mean forgetfulness. Memory represents an important part
of our identity. We also have the duty of memory before the
victims of the past who were tortured to death and gave their
lives for the faithfulness to God and their homeland on earth.
To forgive means to abandon revenge and hatred, to participate
in building harmony and fellowship among people, our peoples and
countries, which is the basis for a peaceful future."
The two communities must also work on
evangelisation, seeking "today, in the era of religious
indifference and secularism, to make every effort so that the
social life and culture of our nations not be stripped of
principal moral values, the cornerstone of a viable peaceful
future."
The two
Churches, which must preach the Word of God, reassert the
distinction between State and Church, and support tolerance,
face "new challenges. Under the pretext of respect for the
principle of secularism or the protection of the freedom of
choice, moral principles based on the commandments of God are
challenged. Advocating abortion, euthanasia and same-sex unions,
which trying to present it as a form of marriage, imposed by
consumer lifestyles, traditional values are denied and religious
symbols are excluded from public space."
With hints to Benedict XVI's teachings, the
message goes on to say, "Often we are faced with manifestations
of hostility to Christ, his Gospel and the cross, as well as
attempts to remove the Church from public life. Falsely
conceived secularism takes the form of fundamentalism and in
fact is a form of atheism."
Again, "We believe not only terrorism and armed conflict, but
also abortion and euthanasia to be grave sins against life and a
disgrace to contemporary civilization."
After stressing the value of the family as "the
sound foundation of all societies," the patriarch and the
archbishop conclude entrusting the "rapprochement of our
Churches and reconciliation of our peoples" to the Mother of
God.
