Mais une telle indifférence à la vérité est à bien des égards pire que la capacité d'être zélée pour défendre une erreur prise pour la vérité. Pilate, qui a dit “Qu'est-ce que la vérité ?” n'a pas pu être converti; mais Saul, le persécuteur du Christianisme, est devenu l'Apôtre Paul. C'est pourquoi nous lisons dans le livre de l'Apocalypse les paroles menaçantes à l'Ange de l'Église de Laodicée: “Je connais tes œuvres. Je sais que tu n'es ni froid ni bouillant. Puisses-tu être froid ou bouillant ! Ainsi, parce que tu es tiède, et que tu n'es ni froid ni bouillant, Je te vomirai de Ma bouche." [..]
Métropolite Philarète (Voznesenski) de New York, lettre aux patriarches et évêques de l'Église, 14/27 Juillet 1969
http://orthodoxinfo.com/ecumenism/sorrow.aspx
PRESIDENT OF THE SYNOD OF BISHOPS OF THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH OUTSIDE OF RUSSIA
75 EAST 93rd STREET, NEW YORK, N.Y. 10028
Telephone: LEhigh 4-1601
TO THEIR HOLINESSES AND THEIR BEATITUDES
THE PRIMATES OF THE HOLY ORTHODOX CHURCHES
THE MOST REVEREND METROPOLITANS, ARCHBISHOPS, AND BISHOPS:
A SORROWFUL EPISTLE FROM THE HUMBLE PHILARET,
METROPOLITAN OF THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH OUTSIDE OF RUSSIA
[...] Let us grant that modern preachers of heresy are not so belligerent towards the Orthodox Church as the ancient ones were. However, that is not because their doctrines are nearer to Orthodox teaching, but because Protestantism and Ecumenism have built up in them the conviction that there is no One and True Church on earth, but only communities of men who are in varying degrees of error. Such a doctrine kills any zeal in professing what they take to be the truth, and therefore modern heretics appear to be less obdurate than the ancient ones. But such indifference to truth is in many respects worse than the capacity to be zealous in defense of an error mistaken for truth. Pilate, who said "What is truth?" could not be converted; but Saul, the persecutor of Christianity, became the Apostle Paul. That is why we read in the Book of Revelation the menacing words to the Angel of the Church of Laodicea: "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth" (iii. 15-16).[...]
Metropolitan PHILARET
In New York,
Sunday of the Sixth Ecumenical Council,
14/27 July, 1969
