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“The Church must breathe with two lungs!”. The well-known expression of John Paul II is becoming ever more actual in contemporary Russia: a country in transition, a country with an extremely complex economic, political and social context, a country that comprises various nations and religious confessions. A reality that has a particular impact on the development of ecumenism in Russia. The resumption of theological dialogue at the meeting between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church now in progress in Belgrade (until 25 September) will give a new impulse to relations between the two Christian confessions. We rest our hopes in the meeting of the Commission and trust that its discussions will prove fruitful. “By the grace of God, we are resuming our discussion of the problems that need to be resolved in our path towards unity”, recently said Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, head of the Catholic archdiocese of the Mother of God in Moscow, in his own appeal to believers. The archbishop recalled that Benedict XVI had expressed optimism about this imminent meeting, describing it as “a new phase in the dialogue” and emphasizing that the Roman Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church, “in defending moral values from the challenges of secularism, moral relativism and an ever more threatening liberalism, ought to confirm their desire for unity in practice”. Given the complexity of the problems, it is ingenuous to think that the resumption of the dialogue is simple and may solve all the problems in our bilateral relations. Nonetheless, we are convinced that a resumption of the theological debate may represent a strong witness of how the problems of today’s fragmented world may be resolved through dialogue. Archbishop Kondrusiewicz has invited everyone to pray during the meeting of the commission for the fruitful results of its labours and for a further development of Catholic-Orthodox relations.The joint Commission was created in the 1980s with the task of resolving the theological problems. Its activity was interrupted when it failed, during its meeting in Baltimore (USA) in 2000, to resolve the so-called “problem of the Uniates”. Four years ago, the Pope of Rome and Patriarch Bartholomew signed a joint declaration of intent with a view to the resumption of the interrupted dialogue. The discussion in Belgrade will focus on the primacy of Peter and the Greek Catholics, on what is lacking, on prayer and common witness.It is a source of joy to see that many ecumenical meetings include prayer and, I would say, culminate in prayer. “The Prayer Week for Christian Unity, held in January, or around Pentecost in some countries, has become a widespread and consolidated tradition”, wrote the Servant of God John Paul II in his encyclical “Ut unum sint”. At times it seems that these words are not understood by some Christians in Russia. The attempts made by the Catholic community in Moscow to introduce common prayer as a positive tradition during the Prayer Week for Christian Unity have always failed. The representatives of the Orthodox Church have repeatedly emphasized that it was impossible for them to pray together with non-Orthodox.If we are unable to pray together, we can nonetheless act together. Contemporary Russia offers many occasions for collaboration, for common activities in the proclamation of the Gospel, in works of charity, and in the mass media. We are called to reinforce the Christian values, so that our ecumenical activity in Russia may represent an example for Europe and for the whole world.
