Shio III: Modernity confronts us with new challenges, while various temptations seek to replace moral values - we must remember that love, justice and tolerance are values whose essence does not change

“Modernity confronts us with new challenges. Wars, confrontation, hostility and various temptations seek to replace faith and moral values. At such times, we must remember that love for God and our fellow human beings, compassion, responsibility, justice, tolerance and the pursuit of peace among people are moral values rooted in Christian teaching, whose essence does not change despite the passage of time,” Catholicos-Patriarch Shio III of Georgia said in his address at the conference “The Foundations of European Civilization and 1,700 Years of Christianity in Georgia.”

The Patriarch noted that it is welcome that the conference is placing particular emphasis on “such important values as the institution of the family and traditional values.”

“Christianity has given us countless prominent figures and saints, great and devoted people. Many turbulent centuries have passed since then; many large and small countries have been wiped from the face of the earth and disappeared into the flow of time. Yet the Georgian people, nourished by faith in Christ and equipped with Christian values, managed to preserve their faith, language and homeland.

“Christian thought and faith gave European civilization an entirely different spiritual and moral substance. Due to its geographical location and history, our country has been situated since ancient times at the crossroads of different cultures and civilizations. For centuries, Georgia developed within a shared space of the rich theological, intellectual and cultural thought of Byzantium, the Christian East and Europe. Through these connections, the Georgian people preserved their identity while also making a distinctive contribution to the spiritual treasury of world Christianity.

“Modernity confronts us with new challenges. Wars, confrontation, hostility and various temptations seek to replace faith and moral values. At such times, we must remember that love for God and our fellow human beings, compassion, responsibility, justice, tolerance and the pursuit of peace among people are moral values rooted in Christian teaching, whose essence does not change despite the passage of time.

“It is highly welcome that this conference places particular emphasis on such important values as the institution of the family and traditional values. And how gratifying it is, Your Eminence, that you particularly highlighted this value in your speech.

“The family is the environment in which a person learns love, devotion, responsibility, respect and care for others. The family is not merely a private space; it is also the foundation of morality and identity. The strength of the family is precisely what contributes to a strong and united state.

“Today, society particularly needs the Church, civil society and state institutions to be able to discuss such issues. This will greatly contribute to a deeper understanding of Christian teaching on the most important issues facing the modern world, support for the institution of the family, and a stronger sense of responsibility toward future generations.

“I wish for the conference’s work to proceed precisely with this vision and for Georgia’s place and significance in European civilization, as a country with a two-thousand-year Christian history, to be highlighted once again,” Patriarch Shio III said.