The common adversary” “

The Holy See has raised to the status of dioceses the four apostolic administrations that have hitherto existed in the territory of the Russian Federation, and at the same time created a single ecclesiastical Province. The announcement was made by the director of the Holy See’s press room, Joaquín Navarro-Valls, explaining in a press release issued on 11 February that by this provision “normality is given to the existence of the Catholic Church in Russia”. Today, in the whole Russian Federation, the number of Catholics is around 1,300,000. Their increase – points out the Holy See in the press release – “certainly does not occur by the defection of Orthodox faithful to the Catholic Church”. The Holy See thus excludes “any hypothesis or accusation of proselytism of the kind that are not infrequently made” against the Catholic Church. In spite of the Vatican’s reassurances on this point, the Patriarchate of Moscow speaks of “a serious obstacle to dialogue between the two Churches”. To understand the reasons that have led the Patriarchate to adopt this position, we interviewed Father Romano Scalfi , founder of the Christian Russia Study Centre. Let’s begin from the fear that the Patriarchate may feel about proselytism. Is this really a hypothesis to be dismissed, as the Holy See claims? “There are no grounds to speak of proselytism in Russia today, especially now that the Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church are both being attacked by an invasive secularism. Besides, various representatives of the Patriarchate of Moscow have recognized that the cases of those who have defected from Orthodoxy to Catholicism are extremely rare. Consequently – I repeat – there are no grounds to speak of proselytism. I would go further. There are cases of Orthodox believers who have returned or drawn closer to their Church thanks precisely to their encounter with our Catholic communities”. How much influence on the other hand may be exerted by the fear of losing one’s own cultural identity? “I agree with the proposition that anyone who finds himself in Russia must bear in mind and respect the Russian tradition and its peculiarity. And I’m convinced that codes of conduct that do not belong to this land must on no account be imported with impunity. But account also needs to be taken of the fact that Catholics in Russia are but a drop in the ocean, so that even if they wanted to they would never succeed in traducing the cultural identity of the country”. So why so much fear? “The problem is that the Christian tradition in Russia has already been attacked by a form of secularism that is progressively expanding, both among the Catholics and among the Orthodox. A survey was recently conducted in Kazakhstan from which it emerged that 70% of the population declared that they did not believe in God. Secularism is the one problem that needs to be tackled, and that needs to be tackled together. We risk in fact forgetting that the centrality of Christianity is the proclamation of Christ. The canonical territory? The canonical territory is that of the atheists”. What does Russia need? “Russia needs to return to Christ. Because Christianity belongs to her long tradition. Russia today has lost the Christian sense of her own history and culture. And that’s why she needs ecumenism to be missionary and mission to be ecumenical. Russia needs to be christianized, just as the whole of Europe needs to be christianized. This is the one problem”. How can the impasse be overcome? “I don’t see any reason why there should be any division between Catholics and Orthodox believers. We work together everyday, and with great cordiality, with so many Orthodox faithful and we see that this reciprocal understanding is increasingly spreading. We believe it’s possible to continue to work together in preaching the gospel of Christ. Love for Orthodoxy, for a tradition that has enormous merits, binds us together. We believe in the exchange of gifts so earnestly hoped for by the Pope”. Maria Chiara Biagioni