By Fr. Elias Makos
The Interreligious Council of Albania, currently chaired by Archbishop Anastasios, speaks of the violation and desecration of universal values at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in France.
He emphasizes that “based on our Islamic and Christian values, we express our indignation at the attack on moral, religious and ethical sentiments through a performance that negatively influences the education of the young generations with anti-values and desecrations that include pagan, immoral and anti-religious nuances”.
It adds: “The Olympic Games and sport should serve as a means of intercultural communication and the promotion of universal values, uniting nations and peoples regardless of origin, color, religion, language and culture.”
It concludes with the observation that “this should be a wake-up call to the moral crisis in which official national and international institutions, which have a direct impact on society, must be more vigilant in preserving the values that build a better world than the one we inherit today”.
These observations of the Interreligious Council of Albania are indeed appropriate, because the social conditions that we create and change every day, each according to our interests, are part of the environment that plays a significant role in determining the feasibility of a life in harmony with our Christian faith.
We cannot allow ourselves to become accustomed to the prevailing bad conditions, which are also expressed through ideas, and allow them to persist through our tolerance. On the other hand, we can positively contribute to the derailment through our selfishness and greed.
A misjudgment of the values derived from our environment can potentially weaken the totality of goals and results that Christian beliefs can achieve.
Translated by Ioanna Georgakopoulou
