Your Holiness,

 We are Slovene, catholic and orthodox, members of the Forum for Dialogue between Faith and Culture (Ljubljana diocese). As friends of Russia and the Russian Church, we often visit Russia and also Sergiev Posad, and send our pilgrims to the Troice-Sergiev Monastery, as the symbol of religious and spiritual life in your country. A month ago we were deeply upset by the news that the local authorities of Sergiev Posad planed mass killings of stray dogs in the city and towns nearby, probably also within the monastery, as part of preparations for the celebrations dedicated to the 700th anniversary of the birth of Saint Sergius (http://www.kkftonus.ru/news-posad/novosti-sergieva-posada/5699-sergievo-posadskaya-gorodskaya-planerka-11-fevralya-2014-god.html).

  We immediately wrote a letter to the local administration, urging them to rethink this blasphemous decision. Here are some excerpts from the letter:

 “We are deeply upset regarding the spiritual image of our beloved Russia. Every time a big international event takes place in Russia, the problem of stray animals is dealt with in the same, cruel way. As you may know, the same thing would have happened in Sochi, before the Winter Olympics, if the protests from the entire world had not forced the local authorities to stop the killings at the very last moment and build two shelters for stray animals.

  We assure you that there is a world of difference between a religious feast and a sport event and that pilgrims will pay much more attention to what is going on than the sport supporters did in Sochi. How could we explain to them that the “beauty” of Sergiev Posad is built on the blood of local dogs and cats?

  We beseech you not to go on with the planned slaughter. We suggest you to contact the church authorities in Troice-Sergiev Monastery and together with them try to find a humane and Christian solution to the problem. There are thousands of pilgrims there every day and we are convinced that it is not difficult to persuade the true believers what the appropriate behavior of a Christian towards God’s creatures should be. Our duty is to take care of them, not to destroy them. That duty was given to us by God himself!

  We hope that, together with church authorities, you will find the way to maintain the reputation of Troice-Sergiev Monastery as a spiritual shelter not only for Russian orthodox believers, but also for all pilgrims regardless of where they come from, and for all creatures. Only to such Posad, the symbol of Russian Christianity, we could send our pilgrims.”

  Unfortunately, we have received no reply to date. Instead, we keep receiving reports showing that the local authorities are continuing their shameful efforts. Apparently, they did not contact the superiors of the Monastery. Therefore we plead with you to contact local authorities and urge them to stop harming the most important spiritual event in Russia since the celebration of 1000 years of Christianity in Russia.  

Forum for dialogue between faith and culture, Diocese of Ljubljana, Slovenia