MOSCOW (CNS): Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexei II met with the Vatican’s top ecumenist and discussed several divisive issues, including the status and activity of the Ukrainian Catholic Church.
Cardinal Walter Kasper, who is head of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, said that during the 90-minute meeting in the patriarch’s Moscow office the patriarch was “gratified” to hear that “no decision has been made” on creating a patriarchate for the Ukrainian Catholic Church.
Cardinal Kasper said he told Patriarch Alexei: “We don’t want to break relations with the Orthodox Churches. To the contrary, we want to strengthen those relations.”
Patriarch Alexei, who is head of Russia’s largest Church, voiced a litany of complaints, accusing Roman Catholics of evangelising baptised Orthodox, converting Russian orphans to Catholicism and ignoring the Second Vatican Council’s commitment to better Orthodox-Catholic relations.
Patriarch Alexei, who has refused to meet Pope John Paul II over these issues, also warned the Vatican not to sanction the elevation of the 5 million-member Ukrainian Catholic Church to the level of a patriarchate, saying it would sour relations “for decades”.
While in Moscow, Cardinal Kasper announced the creation of a Russian Orthodox-Roman Catholic commission to consider points of contention and work toward their resolution, as well as the exchange of faculty from theological schools.
