MOSCOW, Feb. 13 -- Long-simmering tensions between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Vatican flared dramatically this week following a decision by the Roman Catholic Church to bolster its presence in Russia with the creation of four dioceses.
Russian Orthodox leaders, condemning the Vatican's move as "an unfriendly act," today abruptly canceled a top Catholic cardinal's visit to Moscow, scheduled for next week. Metropolitan Kirill, a senior Russian Orthodox official in charge of external church relations, said the Vatican's decision was "very alarming" and an incursion into Russia's spiritual territory.
"For the first time in the 1,000-year history of Russia, a Catholic church has been set up on Russian territory as an organization, as a structure," he said in an interview published today. "To divide people on religious grounds means to weaken the nation."
The Vatican maintains that centrally organized dioceses are the Catholic church's usual mode of operation in most of the world, including Eastern European countries. "Apostolic administrations," which the Catholic church now maintains in four Russian cities, are meant to be temporary, according to the Vatican.
At the heart of the conflict is the fear of Russian Orthodox leaders that the Catholic church's real mission in Russia is to convert Orthodox believers. Although Russian law guarantees freedom of religion, Alexy II, patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, clearly sees the Catholic church as a rival whose activities should be circumscribed.
Kirill, a top aide to Alexy, put the issue bluntly to a French news agency last month: "We are convinced that a Russian Catholic church is something with no future or prospects. There is no need to profess the Catholic faith here, but to work with the Orthodox church to reinforce Christian values," he said.
More than half of Russia's people consider themselves followers of the Orthodox faith, although few attend church services. The Catholic church is tiny by comparison, with roughly 600,000 followers. The Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches split in 1054 in the Great Schism.
Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, head of the Roman Catholic Church in Russia, strongly denied that Catholic priests engage in proselytizing in Russia. He said in a recent interview that the Catholic church considers Russian Orthodox believers to be already saved.
But to Russian Orthodox leaders, the Vatican's decision to upgrade its organization in Russia is a direct challenge. One spokesman told a national news network that it was the equivalent to the Russian Orthodox Church appointing an alternative pope in Rome.
In the short term, the conflict lessens the chance that Pope John Paul II will be allowed to visit Russia, as he has long hoped to do, before his failing health makes travel impossible.
President Vladimir Putin recently told a Polish newspaper that he hoped the pope could visit during his presidency. But Putin also said a visit depended on relations between the pope and the Russian Orthodox patriarch. Catholic leaders have said that the pope would not travel to Russia over Alexy's objections.
