| Bulgarian Patriarchate
It is an indisputable truth that for more than two thousand years to date there has been Christianity that underlies the European civilization, there have been the Christian values and virtues, i.e. the Christian evangelical morality and world view. Christianity has left its indelible mark on all spheres of human life and culture, and the earthly life of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and that of His disciples and followers has served as an inspiration for the creation of the greatest works of the human art.
A few days ago the whole Christian world was worried, tempted and offended by the performance at the opening of The XXXIII Summer Olympic Games in France. The presented artistic images – regardless of the motives declared by the organizers – contradict and are completely incompatible with the Christian evangelical morality, with the Christian spiritual life, but also with the human common sense, with the natural human right, with the centuries-old European aesthetic criteria, as well as with the classical ideal for beauty – a healthy mind in a healthy body, underlying the idea of the Olympic Games. However, here the more important issue is the provocative, discriminative and insulting attitude for the religious feelings of the faithful Christians, which we cannot accept and keep silent about. Here Christ is explicit: “whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for such a person that a huge millstone be hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because of occasions of stumbling! Such occasions are bound to come, but woe to the one through whom the occasion does come!” (Matt. 18:6-7).
The multitude of critical voices that we have been hearing for several days witness of the fact that Christian Europe is alive and the attempts for its dechristianisation and even its dehumanisation are not going to succeed. Because history has proved that all the attempts for fighting against Christ and His Holy Church have ended with failure and have experienced a downfall.
The way of our nation is the European way, but we are in favour of a Christian Europe; a Europe that respects and honours its history and roots. We are convinced that without an actual, living faith in Christ and in the eternal Christian values Europe does not and cannot have a future.
