The Russian Orthodox Church regards those activities as "proselytism detrimental to Orthodox-Catholic relations", Cyril the Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, head of the Moscow Patriarchate Department of External Church Relations, warns in a written message he forwarded today to Cardinal Walter Casper, head of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity.
"Profound regret was what I felt as I read a statement by the Lvov provincial council of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, which concerns further missionary activities of the Greek Catholic Order of the Redemptorists in Ukraine. The Redemptorists are determined to build up their presence in Berdyansk, Zaporozhye Region, and in Odessa. Their statement has badly alarmed us," says Metropolitan Cyril.
The Congregation highlights disabled persons and the youth as top priorities to missionaries. "The matter thus concerns not pastoral duties toward the Greek Catholic flock in the above areas but an intention to convert into the Greek Catholic denomination people who have always been outside it.
"That stance may come as yet another cause of tensions between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic, and nip in the bud whatever positive developmental trends there are in those relations," warns Metropolitan Cyril.
He has forwarded a copy of his message to Monsignor Ignatius Moussa Daud, Prefect Cardinal of the Sacred Congregation for the Eastern Churches.
