The response of the Patriarchate of Moscow to the statements contained in the 2005 Report on religious freedom drawn up by the US Department of State in November has not been slow in coming. The chapter of the Report reserved for Russia underlines the country’s “hostility” towards Catholics, Protestants and Christians of other denominations. It also alleges that the Russian Orthodox Church disseminates demonstrations of hostility towards them and negative images of them in its publications. In a letter to US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, written on behalf of the Patriarch of Moscow Alexis II, Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, rebuts the accusation. He further declares that the Patriarchate of Moscow “finds wholly devoid of foundation the statement that the status of the Russian Orthodox Church is close to that of a State Church. We wish to point out he says that the Russian Orthodox Church is totally separated from the State apparatus” and that “our Church has utterly no aspiration to acquire the status of a State Church”. Kirill does not disguise the fact, however, that problems of religious freedom still persist in Russia and have their original cause he claims in the decades of atheism spent under the Soviet regime. As further regards the Catholic Church, the Metropolitan writes: “I am convinced that the difficulties that unfortunately arise in our relations are a proof of the religious liberty enjoyed by the representatives of the various religious structures in Russia: each is free to act as he wishes, but the acts of each may arouse the disapproval of others. The current situation of our country however permits problems of an inter-confessional nature to be resolved without any external intervention, and in an atmosphere of constructive dialogue”.
