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Moscow, Russia, 31st August
2004 (CNA) -
The Russian Orthodox
Patriarch Alexy II sent a letter to Pope John Paul II
thanking him for the handing over of the Icon of Our
Lady of Kazan back to the Russian Orthodox Church, and
insisting that the Catholic Church “respects” the
Russian Orthodox territories.
The icon was handed over by
Cardinal Walter Kasper at the end of the celebration of
Mass in the Kremlin on August 28, the Feast of the most
glorious Dormition of Mary in the Orthodox
calendar.
“The transfer of this holy
icon brought over by your envoys is seen by the
Plenitude of the Russian Orthodox Church as both an act
of the restoration of justice and an act of good will on
the part of Your Holiness,” said the
Patriarch.
The Patriarch said that the
Pope’s decision to hand over the icon “points to the
sincere desire to overcome the difficulties existing in
relations between our two Churches,” and prayed that it
might help overcome the suffering of the Church in the
20th century.
“The veneration of the
Mother of God as "the zealous intercessor for the
Christian race" - the veneration common to the Orthodox
and Catholic Churches - brings us back to the times of
the Early Church when there were no divisions between
East and West so visible, regretfully, in our days,” he
continued.
The Patriarch mentioned the
desire of the Russian Orthodox Church to maintain a
relationship of “sincere cooperation,” and said that the
transfer of the icon is a “step in the right direction”
towards settling problems between the two
Churches.
He concluded by saying that
“openness in relations among Christians of various
confessions presupposes respect for one another,
knowledge of their common history and sensitivity in
carrying out any actions in territories where other
Christian tradition has existed for
centuries.”
The term “sensitivity in
carrying out actions in territories where other
Christian tradition has existed for centuries,” is a
demand, politely put, that the Catholic Church cease to
evangelize in Russia, an activity which the Russian
Orthodox hierarchy considers an aggressive form of
proselytism.
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