Church in the World

Patriarch questions Church’s rights

Russia

Russia's Orthodox patriarch has questioned the Catholic Church's right to function in his country, and another senior Orthodox bishop has demanded a "serious discussion" of the issue, writes Jonathan Luxmoore.

"Both in 2002 and now, the existence of as many as four Catholic dioceses in Russia has caused astonishment," Patriarch Alexei II said in an interview with Poland's Dziennik daily late last month. "What's important after all isn't the number of faithful, but the necessity of observing the traditional principle of respect for the local Church. We should not create jurisdictions in parallel - this is not a fraternal act."

The church leader was speaking as fears mounted among Catholics of a hardening in the Orthodox Church's position following the election victory of President Dmitry Medvedev, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin.

Meanwhile another Orthodox leader, Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev, the Russian Church's representative in Europe, called for "a serious and elaborate discussion" of the dioceses' future and urged Catholics to "abandon proselytism" and behave "as allies, rather than competitors".

"We weren't informed that Catholic dioceses were being formed in Russia - our patriarchate found out about them from the press, which cannot be called a brotherly gesture," Bishop Hilarion told the Interfax news agency.

"Many Westerners think the idea of canonical territory has lost its sense in the current situation, when Orthodox and Protestant parishes exist alongside Catholic ones. This is true, of course, with Protestants. But Catholics and Orthodox uphold a hierarchical order and the same sacraments, so the idea is justified in their case."

Russia's four Catholic apostolic administrations were raised by Pope John Paul II in February 2002 to non-territorial dioceses with saints' names rather than geographical centres. However, in December, the Moscow Patriarchate's external relations director, Metropolitan Kirill, said the formation of the dioceses had blocked "any possibility of achieving common aims" and would never be recognised by the Orthodox Church.

(See Konstantin Eggert, page 8.)