/View.info/ BELOVED BROTHERS AND SISTERS,
Many times in recent months, the question has been raised in the public space, what is the position of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church in relation to the so-called “refugee problem”. As usual, our Church is accused of passivity. Passivity as a position and passivity as an action.
Let it be known that the thousand-year experience of the Orthodox Church does not foresee the making of hasty decisions dictated by momentary situations. Nor making decisions under the influence of populist considerations and with the intention of pleasing some opinion that is accepted at the given moment as authoritative. By its very nature, the Orthodox Church is obliged to think with the categories of Holy Scripture, God’s commandments, as well as with the categories of history, which means thinking through its positions and decisions in view of the consequences of given events and how they would affect the Orthodox in the long term people, to our flock, which the Lord Jesus Christ has entrusted to our care. This is especially true in situations like the refugee crisis. A situation which by its nature, apart from the immediate issues of material care and material solidarity with the people coming here, raises questions about the stability and existence of the Bulgarian state, in principle. As well as the question of what spiritual context, in what spiritual environment, the Orthodox Bulgarian people will reside, if this flow continues to the extent that the existing ethnic balance on the territory of our Motherland Bulgaria, which God has determined for our Orthodox people, will be displaced to inhabit. In recent months, we have witnessed a wave of people arriving from the war-torn countries of the Middle East and North Africa and seeking refuge in European countries. A wave that takes on all the hallmarks of an invasion.
Let there be no doubt that the Orthodox Church feels compassion and calls for solidarity with all those people who have already come among us and really, not just pretend, need care and material support according to our means. But let it also be clear that the Orthodox Church is categorically against war, which is the cause of this human misery. The Church always investigates the causes of unhappiness and calls for the removal of the causes. The battle with the consequences, if the causes of the phenomenon are not removed, is doomed. We help and will help as much as we can to the refugees who have already arrived in our Fatherland, and we do not divide them according to faith and nationality, but we believe that our government should in no case allow more refugees into our country. For those who are already here, it is right as Orthodox Christians and as a society to take care as much as we can and our scarce resources are enough, but no more. Whoever created the occasion for this problem should overcome it, it is not right for the Orthodox Bulgarian people to pay the price of our disappearance as a State.
Based on this view, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church calls on the Bulgarian government, if it is the government of a Christian country, in all forums and in all international organizations in which it participates, to raise the most acute and categorical question of an immediate end to the wars in the Middle East and North Africa and for the removal of the causes that led to the mass expulsion of millions of people from their native lands. The cessation of wars is the first and indispensable condition for solving the problem, and this cessation of war should be the first duty of any government that wants to show humanity and respect for European principles of humanity.
Secondly, we want our government to most categorically ask the question of whether there is a religious cleansing of these territories from Christianity and how this fits into the decrees for inter-ethnic and inter-religious tolerance. We want our government to ask international organizations how inter-religious tolerance is guaranteed in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, etc. and what measures the world democratic community will take to ensure compliance with this principle in these countries.
We believe that the Bulgarian government should concentrate its foreign policy resources, as we said, on stopping the wars, and not just show solidarity with the consequences of their endless continuation. And secondly, to take care and pay attention to the fact that it is good that the refugees who may be accepted under quota and for whom the Bulgarian Orthodox Church expresses its willingness to help in providing care, should be those who would feel good among us. And for whom the care provided for them precisely by an Orthodox Christian community would not pose a moral or other problem. Because if they would have a problem accepting support from a Christian community, then that would mean that the Christian community would have a bigger problem in the future than we currently suspect.
CHAIRMAN OF ST. SYNOD
† THE NEOPHITE
BULGARIAN PATRIARCH
MEMBERS:
† METROPOLITAN KALINIK OF VRACHAN
† METROPOLITAN JOHANIKIUS OF SLIVEN
† METROPOLITAN DOMETIAN OF VIDA
† OF THE USA, CANADA AND AUSTRALIA METROPOLITAN JOSEPH
† METROPOLITAN GREGORY OF VELIKOTARNOV
† METROPOLITAN IGNATIUS OF PLEVEN
† METROPOLITAN GALAKTION OF STAROSAGORA
† METROPOLITAN GAVRIIL OF LOVCHA
† METROPOLITAN NIKOLAI OF PLOVDIV
† METROPOLITAN AMBROSIUS OF DOROSTOL
† WESTERN AND CENTRAL EUROPEAN METROPOLITAN ANTHONY
† METROPOLITAN JOHN OF VARNA AND VELIKOPRESLAV
† METROPOLITAN SERAPHIM OF NEUROKOP
† METROPOLITAN NAUM OF ROUSSE
#Extraordinary #address #BOC #Synod #refugee #crisis
