Kasper in Russia

During his visit to Moscow to meet with officials of the Moscow Orthodox Patriarchate, Walter Cardinal Kasper spoke with two correspendents of AsiaNews.it on his mission.

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Will you also discuss the matter of the Ukranian Greek-Catholic Church? [accused of proselytism – ndr)

No, it is not my task to speak about matters linked to another Church. They themselves must do so and this is not the scope of my negotiations. I must say that on this point, the new pope takes the same position as John Paul II.

Your dialogue will focus on local, Russian problems?

We will discuss what the Holy See and the Russian Orthodox Church can do together in Europe and for Europe, for Christian values in Europe: it is a field of common interest.

During the Eucharistic Congress in Bari, you said you hoped to further international dialogue with Orthodox Churches in autumn. What did you mean?

In 1980, we formed a mixed theological commission, composed of all the Orthodox Churches and the Catholic Church. The last plenary meeting took place in 2000 in Baltimore (USA). Now, all the Orthodox Churches (including Russia) want to resume theological dialogue and to develop dialogue within the commission. It is not something completely new, but there is the need to reorganise the Commission to restart in autumn.
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Read the complete article Cardinal Kasper in Moscow: we want to deepen Orthodox-Catholic dialogue from AsiaNews.it.

On his specific mission, Kasper was vague, but those three answers that I've included cover a lot of ground. The Ukrainian situation is certainly a sticking point, especially since the Archbishop in Kiev is already a de facto patriarch over that Church. The resolution of that will take time and effort and compromise in order to make peace.

Kasper's answer to the second question listed above is intriguing, but at the same time expected. Asked about local Russian issues, the cardinal answers that secularism in Europe needs to be combatted. Note that the cardinal does not say secularism in Russia, but in Europe. What role does the Vatican see the Russians playing in that battle? We'll see.

Finally, on the comission, that is good news. As long time readers will remember, I looked at a symposium that was held in Rome awhile ago that looked at issues separating the West and the East in a scholarly, unbiased setting and noted the progress that had been made there. Hopefully the commission, when it resumes its work, can pick up there and go forward.

We'll find out details after Kasper has reported back to the Holy Father.