The Patriarchate of Constantinople supports the position of the Russian Orthodox Church to the Vatican actions

THE PATRIARCHATE OF CONSTANTINOPLE SUPPORTS THE POSITION OF THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH TO THE VATICAN ACTIONS

Recently His Holiness Alexy II, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia has received the message of His Holiness Bartholomew, Patriarch of Constantinople, of August 27, 2002. The letter is the response of the Primate of the Church of Constantinople to the Vatican decision to elevate the former Catholic administrative structure in Russia to a church province consisting of four dioceses headed by a metropolitan.

The message states in particular: “We were deeply sorry for the untimely and arbitrary initiative of the Roman Catholic Church relative to the administrative reorganization of the Roman Catholic communities in Russia on the level of eparchies, indeed, without any previous conferring with the Most Holy Church of Russia, although such fraternally insensitive actions within the limits of her canonical jurisdiction unsettle the mutual in the official Theological Dialogue and fan again the fire of the old distrust in bilateral ecclesiastical relations which had been defused by the Dialogue of Love.”

The letter says then that the Church of Constantinople will certainly advise the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church of her position on the issue “pointing out the undesirable and painful consequences of such actions both for the Theological Dialogue and the bilateral relations between the two Churches. At the time particularly crucial and transitional for inter-church and inter-faith relations, as the present one, it is much more necessary to avoid hasty or deliberate unilateral actions, which damage the trust-worthiness of the Christian message without strengthening the position of the Church that undertakes them.”

His Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew assured that the Holy Church of Constantinople sharing the rightful concern of the Russian Orthodox Church “will underline the danger of fanning again the fire of ill-conceived conditions of confessional antagonism, which, in one way or another, will prove to be damaging for the Roman Catholic communities in Russia.” Under the present conditions the first and foremost duty of the Primates of the Local Orthodox Churches is to show their complete solidarity in dealing with common problems all Orthodox nations have to face, His Holiness the Patriarch of Constantinople stressed.

According to previous reports, sympathy with the position of the Russian Orthodox Church to the Vatican actions has already been expressed by the Primates of the Orthodox Churches of Alexandria, Antioch, Georgia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Poland and Czech Lands and Slovakia.