Metropolitan Hilarion Calls for Strategic Alliance With Rome
Mar 28th, 2011 | By Guest Author | Category: Unity in the NewsThe Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church should accept each other not as rivals, but first and foremost as allies, working to protect the rights of Christians, said “the Lavrov of the Church”, head of the ROC’s Department for External Church Relations, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, while speaking at the International Christian Congress in Wurzburg, Germany.
Rorate Caeli comments on the same story here: Moscow to Rome: Yes to cooperation, no to communion.
Guys, I really pray this is the case.
But you will again pardon my skepticism. We have seen such a face from Moscow before vis-a-vis Rome, and it always comes at a great cost to the Greek-Catholic Churches, especially before the brilliant pontificate of Blessed Pope John Paul II.
As I commented before, citing the George Weigel article in First Things, Metropolitan Hilarion actually JUSTIFIES the false and criminal “reunion” Synod in 1946 that was instigated by Stalin and forced the reunion of Greek-Catholic faithful and Churches with the Moscow Patriarchate, effectively making the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church the largest illegal religious organization in the world until the late 1980’s.
For a reference, see Fr. Serge Keleher’s “Passion and Resurrection: The Greek Catholic Church in Soviet Ukraine 1939-1989” published by Eastern Christian Publications. Chapter 12 especially highlights some of the issues brought about by the renewed enthusiasm for the Vatican’s “Ostpolitik,” where at one point even the Synod of the Moscow Patriarchate approved giving Roman Catholics Holy Communion while the Secretariat for Christian Unity was more or less advocating for the speedy abolition of the Greek Catholic Churches which he regarded as “anachronistic.” A Cardinal even attended a local Council of the MP which gave canonical sanction to the 1946 false-synod, and not only did not protest, but offered a “flattering toast” to the Soviet Chairman for Religious Affairs!
Meanwhile, Greek Catholic faithful and their clergy were forced underground, were being beaten and persecuted…suffering for their unity with the Vicar of Peter. And often, sadly, they suffered at the hands of their Orthodox Sister Church.
As I said, Blessed Pope John Paul II provided a much more balanced approach.
“The (Eastern) communities of faithful born of these attempts (at reunion with the Apostolic See), who for centuries have maintained their communion with the See of Rome in obedience to an impulse from the depth of their consciences, clearly have a right to the solidarity of the Catholic community and especially of the Bishop of Rome.”
https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=3701
Moscow is actually the daughter Church of Kyiv, though it would seek to lord over her in both her Orthodox and Catholic jurisdictions. I am very curious what the MP reaction is to the election of the new UGCC Patriarch might be, especially given the fact that he may very well – God willing – be serving for the next 40 years, as well as the fact that Moscow – both in its political and ecclesiastical realities – has been making all sorts of encroachments in the life of the Ukrainian people.
All that said, if Moscow extends such cooperation and charity with the WHOLE Catholic Communion, then it will be a marvelous step forward.