Moscow True Ecumenism: Announcing Christ Here is the letter from Fr Scalfi, who could not be present at the inauguration of the Library Allow me, first of all, to thank from the heart all those who with sacrifice and generosity have contributed to the realization of this work. To all the friends who have helped us, and they are many, both in Russia and in the West, I assure you in the name of the Christian Russia Foundation of our grateful and persistent prayer. This work that we are inaugurating today has a long story, which I would like to touch upon, so that this latest fruit (for the moment) that we are inaugurating may be understood and evaluated. This story began in 1957, when we began to think about the destiny of Christianity in Russia. At the time, there were few of us, not many units, but even then, we were motivated by some convictions that later have accompanied us throughout our entire journey. Our first intention was to make known to the Italian people the richness of the cultural tradition, in particular the religious tradition, of Russia. In order to love each other we need to know each other, and to know each other we need to love each other. To realize this task we felt to be ours, we organized conferences in Catholic spheres and promoted the teaching of Russian philosophy at the Catholic University of Milan. We also created magazines (318 issues)–Christian Russia, The Other Europe, The New Europe–and a publishing house, La Casa di Matriona (producing about 150 volumes). Our concern was not only to make Russian culture in its great tradition known and loved, but also to keep in mind the concrete life of the faith in Russia, the persecution of the Church, and the witness of the Christian martyrs, to seriously document this situation so that Christians of the West would not forget to pray and take an interest in our persecuted brethren. We wanted to be the voice of those who could not speak. Thousands and thousands of Gospels and Bibles were sent clandestinely to Russia, facing some danger as well. The same spirit that animated our past activities also brought us to found the Library of the Spirit today. We are particularly grateful to Divine Providence and to our Orthodox brothers who allow us to operate together in the great work of mission. We are convinced that every missionary work that springs forth from a common passion for Christ is already in and of itself a step toward unity. If the passion for unity is not accompanied by the passion to announce Christ to the world, you have a limping ecumenism. “Love one another, so that the world will believe.” Carved into the lintel of a Romanesque cathedral are the words, “Ex multis unum ut mundus credat.” When the missionary passion suffers (I’m speaking of our Italian communities), ecumenism also suffers, and vice versa. Mission tends to become ideological propaganda and ecumenism a worldly technique of ceremonies. We have no particular projects. What most interests us is educating in ourselves an ever-more ecumenical and ever-more missionary spirit, entrusting everything to Providence and to the protection of the Mother of God, being attentive to all the signs that Providence has happen. We don’t ask ourselves when the glorious dawn of complete unity between Catholics and Orthodox will rise. The times belong to God. It’s enough for us to know we should walk on the road that God has traced out for us, which is the road that leads to the flowering of the Church and of the Churches, and at the same time produces the greatest good for society as well. The culture of relativism, which dominates both in the East and in the West and leads to the disintegration of the person and society, makes us ever-more aware that the world will be saved from ruin by our unity in the name of Christ. In these recent times, we’ve meditated upon and made our own the saying of Saint Basil: “Give strength to the Church through concord.” This is what we desire and wish to accomplish together with you.