Italian cardinal tells Russians some missionaries acted improperly

Published: 2006-10-11

WARSAW, Poland (CNS) -- An Italian cardinal told the head of the Russian Orthodox Church that religious and missionary activity had expanded in the 1990s, often at the initiative of well-intentioned individuals, and had "not appeared proper from an ecumenical viewpoint." Milan Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi told Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II, "Christianization must be renewed from generation to generation, but there must be no room for confessional competition in the Gospel's name. In a speech Oct. 2 at Moscow's Danilovsky Orthodox monastery, Cardinal Tettamanzi told Patriarch Alexy that proselytism was "condemned not only by Orthodox, but also by Catholics," adding that he regretted some Catholics had shown a "carelessness toward the life of the Spirit." The cardinal was part of an Italian church delegation that visited Moscow Sept. 29-Oct. 3 at the invitation of the patriarch. His speech was published in Italian and Russian on the Milan archdiocesan Web site.

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