Nizhniy Novgorod (AsiaNews/Agencies) – The Catholic Church inRussiahas asked its Orthodox counterpart to send a priest to provide pastoral care for Orthodox Christians employed by Caritas in Nizhniy Novgorod, a town east ofMoscow.
Archbishop Tadeuzs Kondrusiewizc, head of the Archdiocese of the Mother of God inMoscow, and Fr Mario Beverati, rector of the Catholic parish in Nizhniy Novgorod, made the proposal in meeting on Monday with the local Orthodox archbishop, Metropolitan Georgiy.
“The proposal was heard out favourably,” the press service of the Conference of Catholic Bishops inRussiareported.
During the talks, which were held in a spirit of openness and mutual understanding, the two “sides admitted that an effective and mutually acceptable settlement of emerging issues and misunderstandings would promote further development of Catholic-Orthodox relations”.
The hierarchs expressed hope in future cooperation for the sake of the common goal which is the salvation of man and consolidation of society.
Alleged Catholic proselytising in places the Moscow Patriarchate claims as Orthodox by tradition is one of the issues fuelling tensions between the two Churches inRussia.
However, the Catholic Church and its social institutions have always had an open door policy based on solidarity towards the Orthodox clergy, and have guaranteed them the right to provide their own pastoral care to Orthodox under Catholic care. For instance, in a Salesian-run orphanage inMoscowan orthodox priest has been performing baptism and meeting young people for quite some time.
Archbishop Kondrusiewizc presented His Eminence Georgiy with the recently published Russian edition of then Card Joseph Ratzinger’s (now Pope Benedict XVI) book Introduction to Christianity with a foreword by Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk andKaliningrad.
The Orthodox hierarch, in turn, presented the archbishop with an icon of the Mother of God and a volume on theNizhniyNovgorodSchoolof iconography.
