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Catholic World News News Feature

VATICAN EYES MEETING WITH MOSCOW PATRIARCH June 28, 1996

EWTN News

The feast of Sts. Peter and Paul-- which is celebrated tomorrow, June 29-- is always the occasion for an ecumenical meeting in Rome. Last year on this date Bartholomew I, the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople, paid a visit on Pope John Paul II. This year the patriarch will be represented at the Vatican by a delegation of Orthodox Church leaders, who will participate in a solemn morning Mass at St. Peter's basilica.

But on this feast day of Christian unity, many Vatican officials are looking beyond Constantinople toward Moscow. With the Pope scheduled to visit Hungary late this summer, Catholic eyes are looking toward the nations of the former Soviet empire. And with the Russian people caught up in a lively election campaign, that country has been the focus of special attention. But for the Vatican, that general interest only forms the background for a more particular question: Might the Holy Father meet with Patriarch Aleksei II of Moscow?

The Pope's September visit to Hungary could have furnished the occasion for a historic meeting between the two religious leaders-- a meeting that would mark the first face-to-face encounter between the Bishop of Rome and the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, after 900 years of separation. But the schedule for the Holy Father's trip leaves little room for any such meeting. And the timing-- during a political campaign in which the unique status of the Russian Orthodox Church has become a major issue-- makes the meeting still more unlikely.

The site of the proposed meeting, according to Vatican reports, would have been a thousand-year-old monastery at Pannonhalma in Hungary. The abbot of that monaster, Imre Asztrik Varszegi, visited Rome early in June, and made it clear that "it would be very difficult to arrange such an encounter." Still he left the door open to the possibility of the historic meeting, allowing, "we must wait, in any case, for the results of the Russian elections."

But what might happen after those elections? During the political campaign season, Patriarch Aleksei-- clearly worried by the prospect of a Communist return to power-- made no effort to hide his preference for the incumbent, President Boris Yeltsin. But regardless of the electoral results, the Patriarch will have very little room for maneuver. The most important factors limiting his freedom are not national political affairs, but religious issues: unrest within the Russian Orthodox Church, and the continuing crisis that has strained relations between the patriarchs of Moscow and Constantinople.

Within his own denomination, Aleksei has been assailed by critics who charge that he has been too friendly toward the Roman Catholic Church. Many Orthodox clerics complain bitterly about the presence of a Catholic apostolic administrator in Moscow, and the slow but steady conversion of individual Orthodox believers to the Catholic faith. And although Pope John Paul II played a decidedly low-key tone in his messages celebrating the agreements that led to a restoration of communion between Rome and the Orthodox churches of Ukraine and Ruthenia, his critics within the Russian Orthodox Church nevertheless have accused the Pope of fostering a "uniate" mentality-- and scolded Aleksei for failing to oppose that vision more forcefully.

However, the conflict between Moscow and Constantinople has had much more serious and immediate implications. That quarrel began several months ago, when a group of Orthodox parishes in Estonia declared their independence from the Moscow patriarchate, and were recognized by the Patriarch of Constantinople-- the "first among equals" of all Orthodox bishops-- as autonomous. Patriarch Aleksei objected violently to the move, and for several weeks there was a complete and public break in the communion between Moscow and Constantinople. Although the threat of outright schism has now been averted, the relationship between the two patriarchates remains extremely delicate.

That struggle has complicated the task of ecumenical work among Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox leaders. For the moment, at least, Orthodox participants seem to be virtually paralyzed. In June, the Russian church quietly postponed the scheduled meeting of a mixed theological commission, explaining weakly that the Moscow delegation had not had time to prepare.

Fortunately the Vatican is not suffering under similar restraints. In January, without any public fanfare, Rome sent a delegation to meet with the Moscow Patriarch. And while the subject of their discussions has never been revealed, knowledgable sources at the Vatican hint that they might have been planning for a meeting between Pope and Patriarch-- a meeting which Vatican officials still believe may occur. Some speculate that the meeting will be held in Hungary; others believe it will be scheduled for sometime next year. But few people at the Vatican doubt that the historic meeting between Aleksei II and John Paul II will eventually take place.