Metropolitan Kirill Visits the Diocese of Vienna and Austria

Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, visited Austria on 12-13 February 2005.

 

On February 12 Metropolitan Kirill arrived in Salzburg, where he met with General Consul of the Russian Federation A.A.Scherbakov. Taking part in the talk was Bishop Hilarion of Vienna and Austria.

 

That same day Metropolitan Kirill being accompanied by Bishop Hilarion visited the cemetery in the village of Groedig, where the camp for the prisoners of war was located at the time of the First and Second World Wars. Buried at the cemetery in 1914-1918 were 891 Russian prisoners of war, 926 persons interned from Russia, 24 Serbs, 156 Italians, 19 Germans, and in the period from 1939 to 1945 – 34 Soviet and 10 Yugoslavian citizens. Metropolitan Kirill said prayers for the Orthodox Christians buried at the cemetery including the soldiers killed at the battlefield.

 

On February 13 Metropolitan Kirill met with Christoph Cardinal Schoenborn, Archbishop of Vienna. Metropolitan Kirill told the head of the Vienna Archbishopric of the Roman Catholic Church about the present state of the Orthodox-Catholic relations in Russia. Discussed was a matter of registration of a diocese of the Moscow Patriarchate in Austria and some other issues of mutual interest.

 

That same day Metropolitan Kirill celebrated the Divine Liturgy in St.Nicholas’ Cathedral in Vienna. Concelebrating were Bishop Hilarion of Vienna and Austria, Rector of the Cathedral Archpriest Vladimir Tyschuk, Archpriest Chrysostom Pinenburg, Priest Radoslav Ristic, Hieromonk Nicholai (Pokhilko), Protodeacon Viktor Shilovsky and Hierodeacon German (Yevseyev). Taking part in the Divine service were clergymen of the Georgian and Bulgarian Orthodox Churches. Present in the church was S.V.Osadchy, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation in the Austrian Republic.

 

After the Dismissal Bishop Hilarion delivered a welcoming address to Metropolitan Kirill, in which he said in particular: ‘The Church has not always been persecuted, but her true servants have always been confessors who laid down their lives for their friends, not sparing themselves for the ministry to God and their neighbours. Dear Vladyko, we know you as a zealous worker and recall the words of the Apostle read today at the service: ‘Set the believers an example in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity‘ (1 Tim 4:12). We know about your apostolic work not only in the land of Russia and in the diocese entrusted to your care, but also in the dioceses, which are beyond the border of our Motherland, where you exercise canonical ecclesiastical authority as Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations.

 

Thanks to your efforts St.Nicholas’ Cathedral in Vienna is being revived after many decades, during which it was impossible to make major repairs and restoration.

 

Dear Vladyko, we ask you not to forget the Austrian flock of the Moscow Patriarchate and this holy church. Allow me on behalf of all clergymen and laymen present here wish you good health and the gracious help of God in your apostolic ministry to the Church of Christ’.

 

Bishop Hilarion presented Metropolitan Kirill with a panagia to remind you of the Divine service celebrated together and wish him many and good years of the ministry to the Holy Church.

 

Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad said in response: ‘First of all, I would like to cordially thank you, Vladyko, for your sincere and warm words and for the work, which you are doing here. You have a difficult work to do, as you fulfil your ministry under new conditions, in the situation, in which many people come to Austria and Hungary from the former Soviet Union. These are people of different nationalities, but many of them are united by the Orthodox faith. It is necessary to reach out to these people, to love them and to be able to heed to the needs of everyone so that peace, love and accord are maintained in these multinational Orthodox communities under the omophorion of the Russian Orthodox Church and common prayers are offered up.

 

The Russian Orthodox Church is multinational by her nature. The great Russian people are her core, but at the same time many other nations are her members, being equal and unanimous. Interethnic problems have never existed within our Church. Maybe, the great multinational Russia has survived thanks to its soul – the great multinational Church, which is called to keep national traditions of the Russian people and their national self-consciousness. I am grateful to you, Vladyko, for the fact that people who have found themselves beyond the borders of their historical Motherland live their spiritual lives under your omophorion.

 

Metropolitan Kirill reminded his listeners of the difficulties that the Orthodox people experience in emigration and said: ‘We must help them find decent living conditions in the places of their staying. At the same time we must help them preserve their culture, language and self-consciousness. There is no other force but the Church that is capable to do this under conditions of the constantly changing realities of the present-day world. Neither the state structures, not public organizations can do what the Church can and must do. It is particular ministry of the Church to be performed in the united Europe under the conditions of globalization. The great mission of the Church is being fulfilled also in the places of your ministry, Vladyko. I would like to ask you and your fellow workers and brethren to spare no effort in performing this ministry of the Church in full measure.

 

All Christians are emigrants in the contemporary world in a certain sense, – Metropolitan Kirill emphasized. Modern culture and society, in which we live, are moving away from religion even further. People are offered the standards of life, which are very far from Christian ideals. One should not forget that man is being shaped as personality in society. Society exerts colossal influence on us, even if we are not aware of it. This influence is particularly noticeable at present, when the mass media and TV in particular, are so powerful. Whether we want it or not, the contemporary world with its laws, standards, fashion and its understanding of the good and bad comes into our homes every day and more often than not this understanding is not based on Christian principles. I am confident that the future of human civilization depends on our ability to preserve Christianity as such in this world’.   

 

 ‘God created this world and based it on His laws, among which are moral laws as well’ – continued Metropolitan Kirill. – ‘If the society changes these laws or renounces them, it leaves the way determined by the Lord, conflicts with God’s conception of the world and man. But if we do not follow the path of God, it means that our path leads to death and destruction. It seems to people that they create a new powerful civilization, but in fact they destroy human life and expose the very human existence and human society to the greatest danger. The outside world influences people tremendously, and it is not easy to keep the faith and devotion to God today. In a certain sense one should be a man ‘not of this world’. Some people say that religion is a lot of weak people, but actually a person should be very strong to keep the faith in his life. The call of God addressed to us requires reciprocal efforts. We should not be as all other people, we should be able to swim against the current no matter how difficult it is’.

 

‘Today we commemorate New Russian Martyrs and Confessors, all who were killed or tormented to death for the name of God after the revolution. These people also had to swim against the current, against the authorities, which aimed at obliterating the faith in God and which did not make any compromises. The New Martyrs managed to save their souls, to save Russia, and not only it. Today they show us an example of being a real Christian. Nowadays no one forces us to denounce our faith, however the standards of life and ideals of life, which are offered to us, are far from the ideals of Christian faith. And we, as the New Martyrs before, have to choose which way to go. Today the Church proclaims that there is only one way, which is life with God, on the basis of God’s commandments. The task of the Church is to speak about it aloud without fear and uneasiness like the New Martyrs did it when they went to executions and tortures, because they did not want to turn off the road of God. I repeat again: the task of the Church is not only in maintaining culture, language, and traditions, but also in keeping people on the road of God’.

 

In conclusion Metropolitan Kirill said: ‘The Church is not only bishops and priests, the Church is all of us. And the church, in which we all assemble, is our ship. We all are on board the ship, we all are afloat. The sea is storming, but we believe that the Holy Spirit is guiding this ship. It requires courage to continue our voyage, and this courage is based on the conviction that the course of the ship is the only one correct’.

 

Metropolitan Kirill heartily congratulated the parish on the feast day and noted with satisfaction that more and more faithful people came to the Cathedral of St. Nicholas. ‘The Divine service is the center of our life, – said His Eminence the Metropolitan. – May the Lord help us not to lose communication with Him, so that it would be necessary to us to meet each other in the church, to realize that we are one team, which is called to meet our future on board the ship of the Church of Christ. I hope that the Lord will help us all. We will reach the calm harbor as the Lord is with us. Dear Vladyko Hilarion, I wish you, all the clergy, brothers and sisters, who have come here today, strength of faith and spirit, God’s help in all affairs and undertakings, spiritual peace and joy, because God always gives peace and joy to all, who turn to Him. Through the prayers of new Russian martyrs and confessors may the Lord bless all of us. Amen’.

 

Metropolitan Kirill had a fraternal conversation with the clerics of the Diocese of Vienna and Austria after the Divine service in the refectory of the church.

 

Then Metropolitan Kirill, Bishop Hilarion, S. Osadchey, Ambassador of Russia in Austria, and Archpriest Vladimir Tyschuk took part in a consultation, during which they discussed various questions on restoration works in the Cathedral of St. Nicholas.

 

On the same day Metropolitan Kirill with Bishop Hilarion visited the church of St. Lazarus on the central cemetery of Vienna. This church was built in 1895, but now is in dangerous conditions and it is planned to restore the church in 2005, in order to continue conducting the divine services in it.