Russian Orthodox patriarch discusses issues with Vatican ecumenist

Published: 2004-02-23

MOSCOW (CNS) -- Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexei II met with the Vatican's top ecumenist and discussed several divisive issues, including the status and activity of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Cardinal Walter Kasper, head of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, said that during the one-and-one-half-hour meeting in the patriarch's downtown Moscow office the patriarch was "gratified" to hear that "no decision has been made" on creating a patriarchate for the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Cardinal Kasper said he told Patriarch Alexei: "We don't want to break relations with the Orthodox churches. To the contrary, we want to strengthen those relations." Patriarch Alexei, head of Russia's largest church, voiced a litany of complaints, accusing Roman Catholics of evangelizing baptized Orthodox, converting Russian orphans to Catholicism and ignoring the Second Vatican Council's commitment to better Orthodox-Catholic relations.

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