ECUMENISM
Moscow-Rome: a hoped-for meetingA good deal of interest has been aroused in the Orthodox world by the interview given by the head of the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Patriarchate of Moscow, Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, in which he expressed the view that a meeting between Patriarch Alexei II of Moscow and Pope Benedict XVI might be possible in a neutral territory (the Italian city of Bari has been touted as a possible venue). The interview was published on the official website of the Patriarchate of Moscow. “Ever since Benedict became Pope – said the Metropolitan in his interview with a German weekly – our relations have improved. He has removed from the order of the day the question of his possible visit to Moscow. Such a visit would have solved no problem, but would only have created others”. Many signs of the Catholic Church are appreciated in Moscow. “The current development of our relations will sooner or later lead to this meeting”, said Kirill, adding that a certain mistrust about Catholics persists in some Russian circles due to the proselytism of the past. But a joint Orthodox-Catholic workgroup of Russia, which met in late December, is working on these questions. In 2005, precisely to clear the field of any doubt, the members of the group agreed on the presence in Catholic orphanages of Orthodox priests for the spiritual education, religious instruction and liturgical services of the Orthodox children being cared for in Catholic institutions. In this context, the visit of Father Igor Vyzhanov, secretary of the inter-Christian affairs of the Department headed by Kirill to the Catholic orphanage of Moscow run by the Silesians on 14 January has assumed some significance. The representative of the Patriarchate of Moscow brought the children good wishes and Christmas gifts. This cooperation – explains a press release put out by the Patriarchate in reporting the visit – forms part of the activities promoted by the mixed Catholic-Orthodox workgroup.Athens: the health of Christodoulos worsensThe conditions of health of His Beatitude Christodoulos, Archbishop of Athens and all Greece and Primate of the Orthodox Church of Greece, are deteriorating, said the spokesman of Archbishop Yiorgos Vassileiou in a briefing to France Press, though explaining that the archbishop “is not in a critical state and is undergoing treatment”. Suffering from cancer, the 68-year-old Christodoulos had been admitted to a hospital in Miami last August but was discharged at the end of October. Since then he has been undergoing therapy in Greece. A religious conservative very influential and popular in Greece, it was he who received John Paul II in Athens in May 2001. He was also the first Primate of the Orthodox Church of Greece to make an official visit to the Pope and to the Church of Rome in December 2006. On that occasion a joint Declaration of Pope Benedict XVI and Christodoulos was read out in St. Peter’s Basilica: “We unanimously affirm – they declared – the need to persevere in the pursuit of constructive theological dialogue. For, in spite of the difficulties encountered, this is one of the essential means at our disposal to re-establish the unity of the body of the Church around the altar of the Lord that we so deeply yearn for, and at the same time to reinforce the credibility of the Christian message we have received”.Austria: ecumenical commitment to lifeChurch leaders in Austria have recently expressed ecumenical and interfaith commitment to the protection of life. Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, President of the Austrian Bishops’ Conference, Evangelical Bishop Michael Bünker, Greek-Orthodox Metropolitan Michael Staikos and the President of the Islamic community in Austria, Anas Schakfeh, joined together to sign the parliamentary civil initiative of the pro-life association “Aktion Leben” on 11 January. The document provides (among other things) for the creation of a fund to help pregnant women in difficulty, support for advisory services and greater support for the parents of disabled children. “In this country there is an urgent need to offer a ‘lobby for children'”, said Cardinal Schönborn, interviewed by the Austrian Catholic press agency Kathpress. Pointing out that the fund for assistance to pregnant women in difficulty instituted by Cardinal König in the archdiocese of Vienna in 1973 is an example from which inspiration should be drawn, Schönborn declared: “In a rich country like Austria it cannot be permitted that women should be prevented from saying ‘yes’ to having their own child due to financial reasons”. Evangelical Bishop Bünker for his part underlined the attention paid by the Evangelical Church to the parents of handicapped children. “In this field it is especially up to the Church to raise awareness of the equality of all, also at the political level”. The Islamic exponent Schakfeh pointed out that for Islam the family “represents an important religious institution”. So “any initiative aimed at protecting life and the family is to be approved”.
