For the record, the latest swing in Moscow's apparently deliberate 'blow-hot-blow-cold' tactics in dealing with the prospects of a meeting between Pope Benedict XVI and the Patriarch of Moscow. This has been going on since Benedict became Pope, and it's tiresome already....
The source this time is the same Archbishop Hilarion who, in Cyprus, last month, said very bluntly, "It's not going to happen...Too many practical problems. Starting with the Ukrainians who decided to recognize the primacy of the Pope", or words to that effect.
They have made it clear, in every way they can, that this is simply not a priority for them.
Hilarion says meeting between Pope
and Patriarch Kirill 'on the cards'
Moscow, November 12 (Interfax) - Relations between the Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches are improving and a meeting between Pope Benedict XVI and the Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, may be on the cards, a Russian Orthodox bishop said.
"Today it can be said that we are moving to a moment when it becomes possible to prepare a meeting between the Pope and the Patriarch of Moscow," Archbishop Hilarion of Volokolamsk, the head of the Department for External Church Relations, told reporters in Moscow.
"There are no specific plans for the venue or timing of such a meeting but on both sides there is a desire to prepare it," the Archbishop said.
Preparations for such a meeting must involve finding "a common platform on all remaining points of dispute," the Archbishop said.
One such issue are relations between the Uniate community and Orthodox believers in Ukraine. In the early 1990s, "the fragile interdenominational balance was upset and a serious situation took shape that still exists," Archbishop Hilarion said.
At the same time, conversion of Orthodox believers into Catholicism is less of a problem today than it was a decade ago, he said.
Benedict XVI is "a very reserved, traditional man who does not seek the expansion of the Catholic Church to traditionally Orthodox regions," the Archbishop said.
When Benedict XVI, shortly after being elected Pope, met with Metropolitan Kirill (the present Russian Patriarch, then head of the DECR, a papal visit to Russia "was taken off the agenda as now it appears to us to be impossible," the bishop said.
After Metropolitan Kirill has been elected Patriarch, "one can hope for further steps" in Orthodox-Catholic dialogue because the Patriarch "will continue the line on relations with Christians of other denominations that he pursued as part of his former activities," the Archbishop said.
I deduce from the Telegraph's treatment of this story - which lifts the Interfax report, without acknowledging the source and then interprets it so extravagantly - that the journalist who put it together has not been following Moscow's yo-yo play in the past four years, and particularly Archbishop Hilarion's since he was named to his present post, which is virtually #2 in the Patriarchate (the very same post occupied by Patriarch Kyrill before he succeeded the late Alexei II).
The Telegraph headline is almost downright laughable, and the lead sentence is clearly false! Moscow has always been clear it will not even begin to discuss a meeting until its moveable/mutable list of conditions are first met!
Russian Orthodox and Catholic Church
may end 950-year rift
By Rachel Cooper
Nov. 13, 2009
Talks have been held to discuss a meeting between Pope Benedict XVI and the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Relations between the Vatican and the Russian Orthodox Church have been tense for centuries, but in a sign that relations are finally thawing, Archbishop Ilarion, who heads the Russian Orthodox Church’s foreign relations department, said that both sides wanted a meeting, although he emphasised that problems remained.
[Of course, both sides have always said they 'want a meeting', and Rome has been serious about this, even under John Paul II whom the Russians treated shabbily, almost insultingly, in this respect! But it's not a priority for the Russians, who cannot stand their 'third Rome' status, for all that it is historic reality, and would much rather go on being big fish in the Orthodox pond which they easily dominate in numbers, than be a minnow in the Catholic ocean as they would necessarily be in a reunified Church!]
Ilarion spoke of a rapprochement under Pope Benedict XVI that would allow for a meeting with the new Russian Orthodox Patriarch, Kiril, who took up his office in February after the death of the previous patriarch.
“There have been visits at a high level,” said Illarion. “We are moving towards the moment when it will become possible to prepare a meeting between the Pope and the Moscow patriarch.”
He added that in recent years there had been “noticeable improvements” in relations between the two churches.
“The progress in relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church began after Benedict XVI became pope. He is…a person who does not aim to grow the Catholic Church in traditional Orthodox regions.”
Some observers had hinted a meeting between the two Church leaders was forthcoming, but many issues still stand in the way of bridging the split, which dates from 1054 when Patriarch of Constantinople was excommunicated from the Catholic Church.
The breach heralded the Great Schism that finally divided the Christian churches of East and West – which had long had political and theological differences, including the wording of the Nicene Creed – and led to the creation of the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church.
Relations have been tense ever since, and were strained again in recent years by Orthodox accusations of Catholics proselytising in Russia - although historians have cast doubt on such claims.
Mark Nash of the Agency for Evangelisation, who has studied the relationship between the Russian Orthodox and Catholic Church, said a "a lot of the instances of 'proselytising' were in orphanages and children's programmes.
"The chancellor of the Russian Bishops' Conference, Father Igor Kovalevsky, who was on the joint committee tasked with investigating the allegations, said they were 'misunderstandings'."
Dr Jeremy Smith, senior lecturer in Russian history at the University of Birmingham, added that his impression was that the Catholic Church "had not really engaged in proselytising".
"Consequently, [the Catholic church] has remained on relatively good terms with the Orthodox clergy, especially at a local level," he said.
He added that the Russian authorities aimed anti-proselytising laws "more strongly against organisations like the Moonies".
Such legislation, he added, marked an attempt by the government to establish the Russian Orthodox Church as "a centrepiece of Russian identity, albeit as a pillar of the state, after the fall of Communism".
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 09/01/2010 03:47]