MOSCOW, Sep 5, 02 (KESTON/CWNews.com) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has rejected a request from Pope John Paul II for help in restoring a Catholic bishop to the Siberian diocese from which he was expelled early this year, CWN and Keston News Service have learned.
In a letter to Pope John Paul that was written more than a month ago, but has not been made public, the Russian leader turned down the Pope's request for help, and failed to offer any plausible explanation for the bishop's expulsion.
Although the exact content of Putin's message to the Pope is known only to a few Vatican officials, one knowledgeable source acknowledged that the Russian leader had offered no real prospects for the bishop's return to his diocese. «I don't know of any moves forward,» the Vatican official told Keston News Service.
Bishop Jerzy Mazur, the Polish native who had been appointed in February to head one of four newly established Catholic dioceses in Russia, was taken into custody at Moscow's Sheremyetevo airport on April 19, informed that his visa had been revoked, and forced to return to Warsaw. Since that time, the Diocese of St. Joseph in Irkutsk, in Siberia, has been without a leader-- although Bishop Mazur reports that he has been in regular contact with chancery officials by phone, fax, and internet connections.
Despite formal diplomatic protests by Church officials, the Russian government failed to provide any explanation for the bishop's expulsion. So on May 9, Pope John Paul wrote to Putin, asking for an explanation and for help in solving the impasse.
In June, Vatican officials expressed public annoyance that the Pontiff had not received any response from Putin. (Keston News Service later learned that the Russian ambassador to the Holy See, Vitali Litvin, had conveyed an oral response. The Vatican considered that reply inadequate.)
Eventually, Putin did reply to the Pope in writing. The exact date of the Russian leader's letter is unclear. But on August 28, Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz of Moscow told Associated Press reporters that Putin had replied a month earlier, and added: «The answer did not satisfy us.»
A ranking Vatican official told Keston on September 5 that the Vatican chose not to make Putin's letter public, because the contents were not helpful. «The letter is in the hands of the Holy Father,» he said. «Not many in the Vatican have seen it.»
The few people who are acquainted with the contents of Putin's letter indicate that the Russian leader lightly dismissed the Pope's protest. Putin reportedly told the Pontiff that he was sympathetic toward the needs of the Catholic diocese in Irkutsk, but he could not intervene because Bishop Mazur had violated Russian law.
Specifically, one Vatican official informed CWN, Bishop Mazur was expelled because in establishing the new diocese in Irkutsk, the Vatican had used a formal title that included a reference to the region of «Karafuto»-- the Japanese name from a region that Russia now knows as southern Sakhalin. Russian officials said the use of a Japanese geographical title was an affront to Russian sovereignty, since it implied that Japan, which controlled the region from 1905 to 1945, might still claim title to the territory.
Vatican officials, responding to such Russian protests, had explained that the geographical term was used as a formality. The Vatican does not become involved in territory disputes, officials said, and they quickly changed the official description of the Irkutsk diocese to use the term «southern Sakhalin» rather than «Karafuto.» The expulsion of Bishop Mazur occurred after that change had been made.
So Bishop Mazur remains barred from his diocese, and the dismissive letter from President Putin suggests that the Russian government is not ready to reconsider the bishop's status.
Asked whether the Pope has responded to Putin's letter, a official told Keston: «The letter was a response to the Holy Father's inquiry. It does not need a response.»
Catholic World News Feature
5. september 2002