Trade and Nature
October 20, 1999
It is with much delight and great emotion that I find myself once again visiting beautiful Bratislava, a city so dear to me, in the context of the international scientific congress on the subject “Religion, Science, and Environment,” and this year on the more specific subject “Danube: A River of Life.” I recall the beautiful moments I spent last year during my official visit to Slovakia and this delightful city, and I express my satisfaction because God has given me the privilege of being here again, even for a short while.
I bring to you the blessing and the love of the Mother Church of Constantinople. I address to you my wholehearted greetings in the Lord, and would like to express my affection to you and my gratitude for your love and for all the manifestations of it deriving from your honor toward the Mother Church and to my humble person. I wish all of you every support and assistance from the Lord for all your various efforts and good works.
I am sure that in the list of these good works you have included support for the effort implied by this floating Congress. This effort aims at cleaning up the Danube to remove all pollutants, so that it may be a road of life and not a bearer of death. For, as you well know, the great Danube River is not merely a trade route, used as such for millennia, but also a riverbed over which six to seven thousand tons of water flow each second toward the Black Sea. This water, and that of all the other rivers that flow into it, renews the water of the Black Sea and contributes greatly to preserving life in its ecosystem. In addition, over its long course, the Danube creates many ecosystems of his own, which serve human life in their own way. All these ecosystems are in grave danger of being seriously disrupted, or even completely destroyed due to the thoughtless dumping of wastes and toxic substances into the Danube, thus causing damages not only to the areas right on the river banks, but also to the interior of the countries through which it flows and to even more distant areas.
The object of this present Symposium is to study the environmental problems thus created as well as to contemplate practical and affordable solutions to them. It is taking place on the River in order to sensitize public opinion in all the countries involved. My personal participation aims at emphasizing the moral character of this entire effort. For, in truth, this is a humanitarian effort; and its success depends on the contribution of all our fellow human beings. The only motive which may concern all – and, indeed, I believe that it does – is the moral obligation, the duty towards our fellow human beings and to our children and, more generally, to future generations.
As Christians, but also as civilized people, we know and we accept that social co-existence is based on some generally accepted rules, many of which are formulated or amended to address some specific situations, but based on eternal principles. In this case, the eternal principle is this: “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you;” a principle which our Lord expressed in a positive way: “And just as you want others to do unto you, you also should do unto them likewise” (Lk 6.31). And surely, as we do not want other people’s wastes and dirt dumped on us, it is our obligation to find ways of not imposing our wastes on others. I am sure that the developed moral sense and the good will of all of you will contribute to finding and applying the best possible solutions, so that the Danube remains a river of life and does not become a bearer of death.
