The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC)
and the Holy See are beginning a new chapter in their dialogue, the
Moscow Patriarchate believes.
The other day, Pope Benedict XVI appointed
a new ambassador of the Vatican to Russia, Archbishop Ivan Yurkovich.
Observers hope that this appointment will resolve numerous problems
between confessions and will also bring forth the date of a historic
meeting of the heads of both Churches.
Russia is a
strategically important country for the Holy See because over 1.5
million Catholics live on its vast territory.
All of them need constant
support, stressed Monsignor Visvaldas Kulbokas from the Embassy of the
Vatican in Moscow, in his interview for “The Voice of Russia”.
“In
Russia’s remote regions, such as Siberia or the Far East, it is very
important for Catholics to feel the presence of their Church and their
faith. This can be achieved through regular visits by the Nuncio and
contacts around the regions, so that believers could see him not only as
a representative of the Holy See but also as a pastor, close to every
believer.”
"A Doctor of Canon Law and a polyglot,
Archbishop Ivan Yurkovich, Slovenian by nationality, is the best person
to represent the Vatican in Russia," says the representative of the
Vatican Embassy.
He speaks Russian, he knows the customs and traditions
of the country and of the Russian spirituality.
In the 1990s, Yurkovich
represented the interests of the Holy See in Russia. From 2004 he was
the chief Nuncio first in Belarus and then in Ukraine.
Now that
Archbishop Yurkovich has been appointed the new Ambassador of the Holy
See, the Moscow Patriarchate has the most optimistic forecasts for the
further development of interconfessional relations.
This is what Deacon
Alexey Dikarev from the Department of International Religious Relations
of the Moscow Patriarchate told “The Voice of Russia”:
“The
Archbishop’s Ukrainian experience, where the situation with churches
was very difficult, will help us to move forward on many issues and, in
particular, as regards relations between Catholics and Orthodox
Christians in Ukraine. As is known, this problem is one of the main
obstacles in the way of a meeting between the Pope and the Patriarch of
the Russian Orthodox Church. We sincerely hope that Yurkovich’s
experience will help us to overcome the differences.”
Both
the ROC and the Vatican state that interconfessional dialogue has
become very effective over the last decade.
Catholics and Orthodox
Christians are partners today, working together to preserve Christian
values in the world.
The previous Nuncio in Russia Archbishop Antonio
Mennini made a great contribution to the consolidation of this
positive communication, says the representative of the Moscow
Patriarchate.
“It is during his time that
considerable improvement of relations between the ROC and the Vatican
took place both in Russia and on the international arena.
Monsignor
Mennini did a lot to make cooperation between our Churches fruitful and
mutually beneficial.
When he was in office the diplomatic relations
between Russia and the Holy See were stepped up.
In December 2009,
during Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s first visit to the Vatican,
an agreement on exchanging embassies was concluded.
Time
will tell whether the new representative of the Vatican will manage to
win equally good graces of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Anyway, it is
already clear that the Moscow Patriarchate is interested in the
improvement and consolidation of interconfessional ties.
And who knows,
maybe the historic meeting of the heads of the two leading Churches of
the world, so highly anticipated, will take place in the near future.