Decline of Western civilization unless it recovers heritage

Moscow, July 8, (Interfax) - Western Civilization will soon witness its decline, unless it begins to recover its lost Christian heritage, believes the Moscow Patriarchate.

"The society living only for the sake of mundane interests of individuals is bound for failure, and capitalism will fall in a few coming decades in just the same way as communism and Nazism fell in their due course," head of the Synodal Church and Society Department Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin is quoted as saying on the website of Orthodox society Radonezh.

Fr. Vsevolod Chaplin referred to the West as being "spiritually weak" and expressed belief that "the society living only for the sake of material benefits and an individual put in the center of the Universe and made the measure of all things - this kind of society will not stay long."

"I personally think that the West is now feeding on the capital which it has accumulated in the Middle Ages - its moral, spiritual and social capital," Fr. Vsevolod said.

According to him, people are increasingly living just for "the sake of their wallets and wombs."

"This is the road to nowhere. When we are told that the godless Western society lives in peace and prosperity, we answer: the more signs there are that such peace and prosperity will be soon over," Fr. Vsevolod said.

In regard to the relations between the representatives of Islam and the Western world, he said that "the West is bewildered in its worldview, and when it meets the real faith and real commitment, when people are ready to sacrifice themselves, this causes frustration in a relaxed and spiritually helpless society."