ROME, Sep 25, 02 (CWNews.com) - In an interview published by an Italian magazine, Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz of Moscow has responded forcefully to the charges lodged against Russian Catholics by the Orthodox Patriarch Alexei II.
Archbishop Kondrusiewicz lamented the development of a «Catholics-as-enemy syndrome» in Russia. He told the magazine Famiglia Cristiana that, contrary to the complaints of the Orthodox patriarch, the Catholic Church in Russia is not aggressively seeking converts from Orthodox parishes. «A Church that becomes aggressive is bound to become isolated,» he observed.
In practice, the archbishop continued, the «simple people, including the Orthodox faithful of Russia, see no problem with Catholics and Orthodox living and eventually working together.» He also pointed out that the Russian Orthodox Church maintains parishes in other countries, where Catholicism predominates. So he said it is «absurd» to think that «all of Russia should be Orthodox simply because it is Russia.»
The previous issue of Famiglia Cristiana had carried an interview with Patriarch Alexei, in which the Orthodox leader strenuously objected to what he saw as «an expansionist strategy» by the Catholic Church in Russia.
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25. september 2002