April 25, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/interna ... &position=
Russia Church Urges Resolve With Catholics
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 11:11 a.m. ET
MOSCOW (AP) -- The head of the Russian Orthodox Church said Monday a visit by Pope Benedict XVI to Russia would be possible only after the two churches resolve their longtime differences.
''There cannot be a visit for the sake of a visit. There cannot be a meeting purely for television cameras,'' the Interfax new agency quoted Patriarch Alexy II as saying.
Relations between the world's two largest Christian communities have been tense amid Russian allegations of Catholic proselytizing. The tensions prevented the late John Paul II from visiting Russia -- a trip he had dreamed of making as part of his efforts to reconcile the two churches.
Commenting Monday on Benedict's pledge to develop dialogue with other religions, Alexy said: ''We don't know if that's going to affect (relations) with the Russian Orthodox Church. The future will show.''
Alexy said the problems that the Russian church wanted addressed remained unchanged: alleged eastward Catholic expansion and alleged discrimination against Orthodox Christians in western Ukraine.
The centuries-old divisions grew after the collapse of the Soviet Union, as Roman Catholics tried to reassert their presence even as the Russian church was working to restore the clout it had lost under Communist rule.
Some observers said Benedict may lack the zeal John Paul had for closer ties.