Paris, Oct. 4, 2007 (CWNews.com) - Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexei II visited the Paris headquarters of the French Catholic bishops' conference on October 3, and said that Orthodox and Catholic believers should stand together in the face of new hostility in Europe.
After a visit to pray at Notre Dame cathedral, the Russian patriarch went to the nearby offices of the French episcopal conference, where he met with a group of French prelates including Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, the president of the bishops' conference; Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, the primate of France; Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, the former president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace; and Archbishop André Vingt-Trois of Paris.
Although the Christian faith is not subject to direct frontal attacks in Europe today, Patriarch Alexei said, the faith is "marginalized" on key moral issues. He told the assembled bishops that modern European secularism, "in its destructive power, could rightly be likened to an outright persecution of the Church."
Patriarch Alexei suggested that the moral principles under attack in the West today could form the basis for a common stand by believing Christians, and ecumenical progress could be spurred by the common defense of embattled beliefs.