Moscow Promoters of a New Consciousness by Bernard Ardura Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Culture The Osservatore Romano published a long article on the inauguration of the Library of the Spirit. We offer some excerpts Over the past fifteen years, this Cultural Center, directed by Jean François Thiry, has published in Russian over eighty works of general culture, spirituality, and theology by Catholic and Orthodox authors. The Center has an important distribution network throughout the entire Federation, and a catalogue of over 700 titles, sold in Saint Petersburg and Vladivostok, from Ukraine to Belorussia, from Kazakhstan to Moldovia. (…) Before a throng that was so numerous that the new conference room couldn’t accommodate everyone, the inauguration ceremony presented talks by the Center founders, Archbishop Kondrusiewicz, also President of Caritas of Western Russia, Fr Romano Scalfi, Director of the Christian Russia Foundation, and Metropolitan Filaret, President of the Saints Cyril and Methodius Cultural Center in Minsk, represented by Fr Vladimir Smalij, Vice-Rector of the Academy of Orthodox Theology of Sergej Posad. His Holiness Aleksij II, Patriarch of Moscow and of all of Russia, sent a message of felicitations for the initiative with “the hope that our collaboration with the Synodal Theological Commission of the Russian Orthodox Church will develop further.” After the vibrant talk by His Excellency Archbishop Antonio Mennini, Apostolic Nuncio, representative of the Holy See to the Russian Federation, Cardinal Poupard conveyed the greetings expressed by His Holiness Pope John Paul II in a telegram sent by the Cardinal Secretary of State. (…) In his talk, Cardinal Poupard underlined first of all that “if the cultural centers are able to conserve the salt and the light of the Gospel, their action will be fruitful like yeast, and the entire dough of the world will grow and will take on the form of a new civilization, the civilization of love. These centers thus carry out a prophetic role, promoting a critical consciousness in the heart of civil society, and giving testimony to their trust in the men and women to whom they open.” (L’Osservatore Romano, December 5, 2004, p 8)