04 May 2018 | by James Roberts, The Tablet
Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk (3 from left) has said Orthodox-Catholic unity is ‘not in prospect’
The head of foreign relations in the
Russian Orthodox Church has said the continuing dialogue between Pope
Francis and the spiritual head of the Orthodox Church, Patriarch
Bartholomew of Constantinople, will not bring about unity between the
Churches.
Since the beginning of his pontificate in
2013 Pope Francis has encouraged dialogue with Patriarch Bartholomew,
and the two have shared platforms in particular concerning the
importance of protecting and defending Creation. In his message to the
Patriarch on the feast of Orthodox patron St Andrew last 30 November,
Francis said that, like the apostles, who proclaimed the death and
Resurrection of Jesus “through their words and the sacrifice of their
lives”, Catholics and Orthodox are called to make this proclamation “our
own”, which will enable both Churches to “enter into communion with the
Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit”. Catholics and Orthodox
must “join together what was divided, wherever this is possible, by
deeds in which both Churches are involved, giving added strength to
matters of faith and canonical discipline which we have in common”, he
urged.
However, Metropolitan Hilarion of
Volokolamsk, the Head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for
External Church Relations, said he does not agree that Orthodox and
Catholic Churches will overcome their division in the foreseeable
future. Speaking this week on The Church and the World programme on Rossiya-24 TV,
he said: “Despite the fact that our faith bases are on similar
foundations and almost the same Creed, the Catholics have different
teaching about the Holy Spirit. Secondly, for almost a thousand-year
history of separate existence we have accumulated many contradictions
and disagreements.”
The sentiments reinforce what was said in a
Tablet interview with a Catholic Church leader in Russia, reported in
this week’s issue (Pessimism over church relations with Orthodox and
Moscow, Jonathan Luxmoore, 5 May).
Mgr Igor Kovalevsky, secretary-general of
Russia’s Catholic Bishops’ Conference, said that “no real progress” was
being made towards solving Catholic Church problems in the country. “I
wouldn’t be too optimistic,” he said. “The general situation in Russia
isn’t easy right now, and the Catholic Church still faces great
challenges in merely building bridges.”
According to the most recent figures in the
Annuario Pontifico, that documents Catholic numbers around the world,
there are approximately 773,000 Catholics in Russia, which is 0.5 per
cent of the total Russian population.
In his Rossiya-24 interview
Hilarion also made specific reference to the differences over the
possible canonisation of Croatian Cardinal Aloysius Stepinac. The
cardinal was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1998, but Serbian and
Russian Orthodox claim that Stepinac, who was archbishop of the Croatian
capital Zagreb from 1937 until his death in 1960, collaborated with the
pro-Nazi Ustashe regime that was in power in Croatia from 1941 to 1945.
“Catholics speak about possible
canonisation of Cardinal Stepinac. He was a Croatian cardinal, the
Catholic Church treats him as saint. However, according to the Serbian
Orthodox Church, the cardinal directly participated in genocide of Serbs
during the Second World War,” Hilarion said.
In July 2016, Pope Francis asked that a
commission of Croatian Catholic and Serbian Orthodox experts be
assembled with the task of “clarifying certain historical questions”
regarding Blessed Alojzije (Aloysius) Stepinac. A July 2017 communiqué
said that the Catholics and Orthodox on the commission remain divided.
Pic: MOSCOW, RUSSIA - AUGUST 22, 2017:
Alexei Dikarev of the External Church Relations Department at the Moscow
Patriarchate, Moscow Patriarchate's spokesman for inter-Christian
relations, Hieromonk Stefan (Igumnov), Metropolitan Hilarion of
Volokolamsk, Chairman of the External Church Relations Department of the
Moscow Patriarchate, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and all Russia,
Vatican's Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Archbishop
Celestino Migliore, Apostolic Nuncio to Russia, Monsignor Visvaldas
Kulbokas, adviser to the Apostolic Nunciature to Russia, and Erwin
Lengel, first secretary at the Apostolic Nunciature to Russia, from
left, pose for a group photo after their meeting. Valery
Sharifulin/TASS/PA