CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES PUT OBSTACLES TO RAPPROCHEMENT WITH EASTERN CHRISTIANITY, SAYS PATRIARCH ALEXIS II

MOSCOW, November 1 (RIA Novosti) - Roman Catholic missionaries are too active in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan, while Greek Catholics are victimising Orthodox Christian believers in West Ukraine. These are two worst obstacles for the Russian Orthodox Church to make it up with the Vatican, said Alexis II, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church. He was addressing students of the Higher Diplomatic Courses of the Diplomatic Academy under Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The conference took place at the Synodal residence in St. Daniel's Monastery, Moscow.

"Our contacts with the Roman Catholic Church have never been a simple matter. Two stumbling blocks remain to this day-Catholic expansion to Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan, with active proselytising, and Greek Catholic oppression of the Orthodox flock in Ukraine's west," said the Patriarch.

"Things get all the worse as ever new challenges are coming up," he went on to highlight a pontifical visit to Ukraine, June 2001. "All bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church asked the Pope not to come as his visit would make the gap between the Churches even worse. Still, he did come."

The Holy See upgraded Roman Catholic presence in Russia to the diocesan status, 2002, to give Russia the status of a Roman Catholic province led by a Metropolitan.

There is another challenge-an attempt to establish a Greek Catholic Patriarchate in Ukraine.

Patriarch Alexis then came over to contacts between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. The Moscow Patriarchate is eager to overcome the split as soon as possible, he reassured.

"We are speaking for an early closure of the split that came with the Revolution and the Civil War. We are doing all we can to put an end to the schism."

The Patriarch mentioned the two past sessions of an ad hoc commission for a dialogue to reinstate Church unity. Draft documents on many issues have been coordinated.

As Patriarch Alexis II emphasised, the 20th century split had a political content. The Russian Orthodox Church has always been one with the nation, and come through all trials and tribulations hand in hand with the laity, he stressed.

It is far harder to bridge the gap with the Old Believers, with its antecedents of several centuries. "Now, however, we have agreed to weigh opportunities for teamwork, especially socially oriented," added His Beatitude.

Patriarch Alexis offered the latest Church statistics. The Moscow Patriarchate presently has 277 institutions based in 42 countries-in particular, eight dioceses, a mission, patriarchal parishes in the USA, Canada and Finland, and sixteen monasteries. The overseas clergy is 265-strong, with ten bishops. The global Orthodox Christian flock currently makes 277 million, 160 million of these in the bosom of the Russian Orthodox Church in and outside Russia.