During a solemn session, the Orthodox primate symbolically succeeded Benedict XVI at the Institut de France this Monday.
Under the dome of the Institut de France, an old manuscript from the 17th century passes, on this Monday, March 30, 2026, from one hand to the other. These are the writings of Saint Maximus the Confessor in their first critical edition, published in Paris in 1675. Rare, these two volumes are a present offered to the Orthodox Patriarch, Bartholomew I, received as a member of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences on the chair vacated by Benedict XVI – he was admitted to this French upper circle before being elected pope. Symbolically, two religious, members of this illustrious academy, the Grand Rabbi Haïm Korsia and the Archbishop Emeritus of Strasbourg Mgr Luc Ravel, therefore presented this present to the Patriarch in place of the Academician’s sword, which cannot be offered to a man of God.
In perfect French, the one who is also Primate of the Orthodox Church, watching over the Christian faith of 350 million faithful, spoke of the intellectual and spiritual work of Joseph Ratzinger – Benedict XVI, to whom he was close. He concluded his evocation with a touching “ may your memory be eternal, holy brother! », pronounced in Greek.
« the tireless search for a truth that does not divide, but unites; who does not dominate, but serves »
Patriarch Bartholomew 1er
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Had he not just praised the late pope’s sense of truth: “ His theological work, both biblical and patristic, is entirely oriented towards this fundamental conviction which he never ceased to recall: the truth is not an abstract idea, but a person — Christ himself, “the way, the truth and life” (…) the incarnate Word constitutes the principle of intelligibility of the world and of history. »
Hommage à Benoît XVI
This is why, continued Bartholomew, “ Benedict XVI believed that the current crisis in our societies is not primarily a moral crisis, but a crisis of truth.“. The former pope recalled “with force that the spiritual crisis of our time (found) its origin in the forgetting of God and that the rediscovery of the transcendent dimension of human existence is an essential condition for the dignity of the person and the peace of the world ”.
Evoking the brilliant intelligence and deep spirituality of Benedict XVI, the one who often met him then asked this question: “ What would he say today in the face of the growing disorder of the international order? He would undoubtedly remind us that the crisis is first and foremost of a theological nature. That the obscuration of the living God and the disappearance of his icon – replaced by the void, the mask or the idol – deprive man of the dynamic of his being in the image of God, accentuate the fragility of his existence, weaken his capacity for conversion and deepen within him the vertigo of nihilism. Because without truth, freedom dissolves. »
By way of conclusion, the patriarch involved this illustrious assembly in this quest: “ the task that falls to you, members of this Academy, and to which we now know ourselves to be associated, becomes an eminent responsibility: the tireless search for a truth which does not divide, but unites; who does not dominate, but serves. »
Introducing this solemn session, Thierry de Montbrial, French economist and geopolitical scientist, president of the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri), recalled: “ our Academy is neither a confessional cenacle nor an ideological body », mais elle échapperait à sa vocation « if it ignored the role of spiritual authorities when they fully assume their historical responsibility and endorse the non-‘marketable’ character of fundamental freedoms ”.
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This high Orthodox personality, described as “ ferryman“between the worlds, east and west, terrestrial and celestial, would embody ” the constant quest for reconciliation and therefore forgiveness, which occupies a central place in Christian values; respect for the Earth and more broadly for Creation; the deepening of the truly spiritual approach, the only one capable of filling the void with which we sometimes think we find ourselves faced with the consequences of our actions. »
“VWe never stop denouncing the sacralization of politics and the politicization of sacredness.”
Thierry de Montbrial
Quant à sa « paradoxical position“Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople – he is called “all holiness” – it falters, according to Montbrial, ” between institutional fragility and universal acuity » since « you are not only a spiritual leader but you are not a political leader ».
And the president of Ifri continued: “vWe are deprived of the attribution of sovereignty but endowed with the prerogative of wisdom. You are a non-state actor, but a structuring player on the international scene. You have a rare historical and symbolic capital which gives you an original place in the configuration of today’s world. »
No religion in politics
Citing the episodes provided by the action of this religious personality, Thierry de Montbrial then observed: “ Unlike the state annexation of the faith, which you condemned without return, you asked the Orthodox world fundamental questions. You insisted that it become a laboratory of the future, that it adopt a symphonic conception of decentralized and shared governance without a desire for hegemony (…) in other words, a civilizational communion in terms of faith, law, art and sociability which runs from the Red Sea to the White Sea around the historic center of which you Be the guarantor. »
Thus, “ à a time when international relations tend to be reduced to the logic of force, your words remind us that there is another logic, that of conscience, of shared responsibility. That which one would expect from a good global governance organization. »
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In short, concluded Thierry de Montbrial, “you have understood that, in a world where religious identities are often exploited, that dialogue is not a moral luxury, but a strategic necessity.And surtout you invented a diplomacy of refusal: the refusal of confusion between confession and domination ”. It is,to put it another way, All Holiness, you never cease to denounce the sacralization of politics and the politicization of sacredness ”.
