Trouble signs in Russian Orthodox statements
March 09, 2011
George Weigel detects danger signals in statements from the Russian Orthodox hierarchy defending the actions of the Russian government-- even in the Stalin era.
Patriarch Kirill has congratulated the Belarus on its elections-- which the world at large recognized as fraudulent. Another leading Orthodox prelate says that the suppression of the Ukrainian Catholic Church under Stalin was "a theologically legitimate ecclesial act." In light of such statements, Weigel suggests, Catholics should recognize that ecumenical relations with the Moscow patriarchate remain difficult, and "there are basic questions of the nature of the Church and its relationship to state power that have to be thrashed out between Rome and Moscow."
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