Has anyone noticed how the Russian Orthodox Church and the Moscow Patriarchate have been having a warm and friendly relationship with Pope Benedict XVI? Russian Orthodox hierarchs have gone to Rome on several occasions during the past few months to meet with the Pope or his representative. One of the major topics they discussed is Christian unity.
Does this mean that the Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church could set the groundwork to establish a united Christian Church?
I find this relationship between Moscow and Rome to be interesting, because I would have expected to see the Patriarch of Constantinople -- who is "first among equals" with respect to all of the Orthodox Patriarchs -- or his representative visiting Rome, rather than Russian hierarchs, in an effort to establish Christian unity between Orthodoxy and Catholicism.
We need to keep in mind that Pope Benedict XVI recently eased the process for Anglicans to join the Roman Catholic Church. Because of the exceptionally warm recent relationship between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Pope, it would not surprise me if Pope Benedict also eased this process for Russian Orthodox Christians.
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I suspect that the Catholics are overly optimistic about the prospects for reunion with Moscow. Even if they put reunion with Rome on the fast track, in the Orthodox scheme of things that would mean about a century.
ReplyDeleteI think Moscow wants to be seen having friendly relations with Pope Benedict primarily as a way to continue their disrespect for his predecessor, Pope John Paul, even after his death. By cultivating a good relationship with Benedict, they proclaim that they are not anti-Catholic in general, they are just anti-JPII. Patriarch Alexy despised JPII for his role in bringing down Alexy's communist patrons - and perhaps for being Polish, which made him a rival for leadership of Slavic Christians.
Roland, you make some good points about the underlying reasons for the Moscow Patriarchate's recent close relationship with Pope Benedict XVI. Perhaps there was some rivalry between Pope John Paul II, who was of Polish background, and Russian Patriarch Alexy, for the leadership of Slavic Christians, since both of these leaders were of Slavic background.
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