Canonical territory is a touchy subject as you can imagine. It doesn't help that the Catholic Church and many of the Orthodox churches have a differing understanding of what territory means and how applicable it is to the very mobile populace of today.
Moscow, February 26, (Directions to Orthodoxy) Interfax - The issue of the status of Catholic dioceses in the Orthodox lands as well as the issue of the status of the Orthodox dioceses in traditionally Catholic countries requires a "serious and elaborate discussion" in terms of the Orthodox-Catholic dialog, Bishop Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Vienna and Austria, Representative of the Russian Orthodox Church to the European Institutions, told Interfax-Religion on Tuesday.
"Many Western people think that the concept of a 'canonic territory' has lost its sense altogether in modern situation because Orthodox believers coexist side by side with Catholics, Protestants and representatives of other faiths," he said.
Recently Cardinal Walter Kasper, the President of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity said the Moscow Patriarchate's wish to abolish four Catholic dioceses in Russia that had been created by the previous Pope John Paul II, was "very unexpected."
It is hard to discern a quality difference between Catholic dioceses in Russia and Orthodox dioceses in the West, Walter said. He called on the Russian Orthodox Church to show the same openness that the Catholics are demonstrating in relation to Orthodox parishes in Western Europe and the U.S.
In 2002, Vatican made a decision to upgrade the level of Catholic structures, operating in the status of apostolic magistrates in Russia, to the level of dioceses, and this decision lead to a protest from the Russian Orthodox Church.
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"It is hard to discern a quality difference between Catholic dioceses in Russia and Orthodox dioceses in the West, Walter said. He called on the Russian Orthodox Church to show the same openness that the Catholics are demonstrating in relation to Orthodox parishes in Western Europe and the U.S."
ReplyDeleteAll very well and good... Except it is simpler still than that to +++ALEKSY II & Co. It goes something like this:
"What's yours is mine, what's mine is mine. Really, everything is MINE... OK?"
Pre-Revolution there were 3 MILLION Catholics (mostly of the Ethnic Pole, German & Lithuanian variety) in Russia. Today their are 600,000 (perhaps a generous estimate) and that is too much for +++A2.
In a nation that loses population at the rate of 700K (or roughly San Francisco disappears annually), where Muslims will have gained majority by 2030, and there will be more Yemeni than Russia in 2050... In a country where abortions still outnumber live births, and women commonly have 5+, where only 12-20M actually identify as practicing RO....
Well, in that country, to have 0.75% of the population running around trying to be good Catholics... Well that would not exactly be your worse problem would it?
I am not in charge (Everyone praise God!) but if I were, we would sit out negotiations with Patriarch Blackbird until the next one was elected. Preferably one without the KGB ties.
http://blog.ancient-future.net/2008/01/news-from-vladivostock-russia.html
Said with aplomb! You managed to encapsulate a lot of my thoughts on the matter in one post.
ReplyDeleteSeriously. I mean seriously. The Russian Orthodox Bishop OF VIENNA wants to discuss canonical territory. Yeah, right. Talk about having a log in one's eye. They have all these Russian Orthodox bishops everywhere, OF Paris and OF Germany. I mean, they want to discuss canonical territory? We should, and we should stick it to them. All this diplomacy nonsense is getting us nowhere.
ReplyDeleteI think it's Robert Taft, SJ who said you could fit all the Russian Orthodox of Vienna in a phone booth.
Like I've always said, the Vatican should just sent some real missionaries into Russia and show them what proselytism actually is and then they'll appreciate the current Vatican position more. And they should also upgrade Kiev to a Patriarchate.