Steps of reconciliation

On September 29 a delegation of Orthodox religious from Moscow’s Patriarchate concluded their visit to Poland. The visit took place on the invitation of the Polish Bishops’ Conference (KEP) and was arranged in conjunction with the Polish Orthodox Church. The religious belong to the Monastery of San Nil, located on the small Stolobnyi island in Lake Selinger, near Ostashkov, that holds special meaning to Polish people. The Russian Orthodox dignitaries, led by archmandrite Arkadij Gubanov, visited Warsaw and Czestochowa, Gniezno and Plock, and the most important Orthodox sanctuaries. The delegation was received by the President of the Polish Bishops’ Conference Msgr. Jozef Michalik, and had meetings with the families of Ostaskhov camp prisoners. The dream of John Paul II. During the apostolic visit (past September 23-29) the Churches envisaged releasing a joint appeal for “the respect of the historical truth and for the reconciliation between the Polish and Russian peoples”. KEP spokesperson Fr. Jozef Kloch claimed that the meetings between Moscow’s Patriarchate and the Polish Bishops elicits hopes in an exchange of correspondence analogous to the “historical” Polish and German bishops’ correspondence (namely, the Polish and German bishops’ 1965 Letter with the renown statement “We forgive and plead forgiveness” and the famous letter signed by the presidents of the two bishops’ Conferences on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of World War Two). Father Kloch doesn’t exclude that the next KEP plenary meeting may “inspire further developments in the dialogue between the two Churches”. “The dream of John Paul II was for Europe to breathe with the two lungs of Christianity, the Latin and the Orthodox ones”, Msgr.Stanislaw Budzik, secretary general of the Polish Bishops’ Conference recalled after the meeting with the Orthodox religious. These days were the first breath of air”, he added. The Monastery of Saint Nil. The daily Gazeta Wyborcza described the visit to Poland of the Russian delegation as “a historical event”, given its religious and political bearing. On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Second War it was ascertained that despite official commemorations to the presence of representatives of once belligerent Countries, the terrible experiences of the past still constitute the spark of disagreements, due to the different interpretation of historical events. The Monastery of Saint Nil holds special significance to Polish people. It was erected in the 17th century on the island of Stolobny, and is notorious for being a detention centre. An estimated number of 10 to 15 thousand Polish civilians and religious, policemen and war prisoners were detained there, 6 200 of whom were executed by NKVD officials with rifle shots in their napes in 1940. They were buried in Mednoye. Today the Mednoye cemetery, along with that of Katyn, is one of the most tragically significant places in last century’s history of Poland, which in September 1939 was simultaneously attacked by Nazi Germany and by Stalin’s Russia. The Black Virgin of Czestochowa. The Orthodox delegation expressed the intention to dedicate a special chapel in the monastery of Saint Nil to the Black Virgin of Czestochowa and was presented with a copy of the famous painting by the Pauline friars of Jasna Gora. In this way, claimed Father Kloch, “it will be possible to commemorate the memory of the victims of the Ostashkov camp, as a sign of reconciliation”. Msgr. Budzik recalled that the chapel will be erected “in a place that bears a tragic memory, one of most painful memories in the history of the relations between Russia and Poland”. The prelate conveyed his wish “that on the ashes of those tragic memories prayers will be said for the unity of our Churches and for the reconciliation of the two peoples”. Archimandrite Arkadij Gubanov said the chapel with the icon of the Black Virgin is due to become a meaningful place of worship for the entire Russian Orthodox Church, since the effigy of the Virgin of Czestochowa “unites Polish and Russian Christians, the two Churches, and the two peoples”. “The copy of the icon of the Black Virgin in Ostashkov can do much more for reconciliation than politicians could do”, the archimandrite declared. The comments. According to religious commentators in Poland, the visit, whose preparations began one-and-a-half years ago (thus under the Patriarchate of Alexis II) could act as a significant step towards reconciliation. The “highly ecumenical gesture”, as defined by Jan Turnau, one of the most renown Catholic intellectuals in Poland, was not without foundations. Indeed, it ought to be viewed in the larger framework of the visit of Patriarch Kirill to the Solovoki islands, where his grandfather was kept prisoner in Soviet lagers, and encompass the words pronounced by bishop Hilarion, the Chief of the Moscow Patriarchate for External Church Relations: “Stalin to all effects can be compared to Hitler” as “he caused the genocide of entire peoples in his own Country and the death of millions of innocent people”.