Russian Archbishop Comments on Catholic-Orthodox Relations

MOSCOW. According to an Interfax report of November 12, 2009, Archbishop Hilarion of Volokolamsk of the Russian Orthodox Church, the head of the Department for External Church Relations, said that 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.

«Today it can be said that we are moving to a moment when it will be possible to prepare a meeting between the pope and the Patriarch of Moscow,» Archbishop Hilarion of Volokolamsk, 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 is 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.

Since Metropolitan Kirill was elected patriarch, «one can hope for further steps» in the 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.

http://www.interfax-religion.com

14.11.2009, 1956 просмотров.