23 July 2010, Odessa (Ukraine), July 23, Interfax
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia believes that present-day struggle of European authorities against religion under slogan of secularity will have a dangerous outcome.
"Even now we see how formation of a multicultural atheistic world make ghetto of religious fanatics appear," Patriarch Kirill said on Thursday at his meeting with public figures in the Odessa National Opera and Ballet Theatre.
According to him, people look at such fanatics with reproof, while they "declare to the whole world: we don't want to live in this society, we don't agree with it, we're forming our own community. Don't come to us, we have gasolene bombs, we'll burn down all your cars, destroy all your trains - you won't find it funny."
The Patriarch sees significant danger in the "model of future" chosen by certain European countries when "multicultural society is built on non-religious basis and religion is to play only external role, like ideology it is declared external part of person's self-identification.
Patriarch Kirill believes it will result in "building up an atheistic society."
"It's impossible to balance inter-religious and intercultural relations by way of denying religious heritage. We all know that when religion is excluded from social life, then morals, moral component is also excluded and people often lose their human image," the Primate said.
At the same time he believe it is possible to avoid such extremes in social relations.
"Only when people live according to laws of love, all interreligious and international relations are in harmony, the world becomes different. While all attempts to artificially internationalize people or to preserve religious identity in hostile ghettos won't solve the question," Patriarch Kirill said.
