20/9/2006 To the Conference on the Prevention of and Fight Against Child Pornography Dear Participants, The problem of pædophilia is a flaming mote in our hearts, because the child is a creature blessed by the Lord Himself. The child that the Lord has commanded us not only to honour and to love but to cherish as model of our souls has nowadays become the target of virulent attacks of the evil. Our resistance to this invidious crime must be urgent and firm. However, we shall not succeed, unless we face the factors of evil eye to eye and become conscious of our responsibilities. Sexual exploitation and abuse of children is a product of the wider devaluation of the human person, a devaluation cynically called "sexual liberation". We live in societies that alienate man from moral consciousness and push him to unscrupulous voluptuousness. The lack of scruples is characterised as "liberation" and is raised to a criterion of life. Pleasure is the new deity of society. All forms of evil spout from its altar, such as unconditional and limitless success, the subjection of sociability to individuality, selfish arbitrary will, consumerism, the destruction of the environment for the sake of immediate gains, the transformation of the family to a mere unit of living together, whereby each member leads his or her strictly private life, and indeed the fact that we view and treat the other as clay, as a piece of flesh. Under these terms, it must be realised by all parties interested that it is not possible to combat pædophilia, while the subjection of all to the indulgence of the individual remains intact in its dominant position. It is not possible seriously to fight to prevent individual immoral acts, while defending the supposed "right" of the individual to amorality. It is not possible to ask for humaneness vis-à-vis the child, when we term unbridledness as "liberty". It should be clear to all honourable participants of this Conference that any isolated effort to combat specifically and strictly pædophilia or, worse, specifically and strictly pædophilia on the Internet, is doomed to failure, when we all know very well that pædophilia, and pornography more broadly, are promoted unobstructedly not only by means of the Internet but also the printed Press, radio, television, and mainly mobile telephony. The promotion of pædophilia and of related pornographic material is served both by the display of unbridledness, often in triumphant tones, and by advertisements, to the extent that most of them, particularly those addressed to teenagers and children, constitute real lessons in fornication and debauchery. Therefore, it would not be fair of me as spiritual father to fail to congratulate you for your fight against child pornography on the Internet. But may I please ask you to join me in treating the problem in its roots and not to consume ourselves in a futile fight to salvage a field when the whole mountain is on fire. Please allow me also briefly to refer to the tactics of your fight: the world, my dear sons and daughters, cannot be saved by prohibitions and censorship. The world can be saved by repentance. Laws are not superfluous but have no meaning or effect, if they are not supported by social common understanding. As long as we allow for man's sinking into all kinds of pleasure, it is preposterous to expect that passing a law, however strict, will impose morality. What our world needs, what our society needs, and may I dare say, what each one of us needs, is to weep bitterly at the horror caused by the severing of personal freedom from moral consciousness, and to repent. What we need is to turn our gaze immediately inwards, to the depth of our soul, praying that we may be able to see the face of the child in there, the face of the Son of God, and to ask Him for forgiveness and succour. May I conclude by wishing that your Conference be a decisive step on the path towards awareness and repentance. The Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, Christodoulos [Translation by Dr N. C. Petropoulos, M.St., D.Phil. (Oxon.)]