Fresh off his meeting with Pope Francis, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill prophesied the downfall of Europe if Christian persecution persists.
“Europe should not lose its Christian roots: de-Christianization of Europe is dangerous not only from the point of view of discrimination against Christians, it is also dangerous from the spiritual and cultural points of view,” Kirill said, according to TASS.
Kirill and Pope Francis met for the first time last week, bridging a millennium-long divide between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches, to highlight the atrocities of Christian persecution.
The leaders of two of the largest churches in the world issued a joint declaration to draw attention to the victims of anti-Christian violence.
“Our gaze must firstly turn to those regions of the world where Christians are victims of persecution. In many countries of the Middle East and North Africa, whole families, villages and cities of our brothers and sisters in Christ are being completely exterminated,” the two said in a joint statement.
“Their churches are being barbarously ravaged and looted, their sacred objects profaned, their monuments destroyed. It is with pain that we call to mind the situation in Syria, Iraq and other countries of the Middle East, and the massive exodus of Christians from the land in which our faith was first disseminated and in which they have lived since the time of the apostles, together with other religious communities,” the statement continues.
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe ruled earlier this year the Islamic State persecution of Christians is, indeed, genocide, which is considered the “crime of crimes.”
But as the persecution spreads from the Middle East to portions of Europe, Kirill and Francis agree the hope for the future of the church rests in today’s Christian youth.
“Today, in a particular way, we address young Christians. You, young people, have the task of not hiding your talent in the ground (Matt 25:25), but of using all the abilities God has given you to confirm Christ’s truth in the world, incarnating in your own lives the evangelical commandments of the love of God and of one’s neighbor,” according to the joint resolution.
“Do not be afraid of going against the current, defending God’s truth, to which contemporary secular norms are often far from conforming,” Francis and Kirill said.
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