ENEMIES OF THE STATE"
A New York Times (NYT) article by Steven Lee Myers, entitled "New Russian Cathedral Stymied by Interfaith Rift" (10 Sept 2002), describes the complaints from the leader of the Orthodox Church in the Russian town of Pskov, Archbishop Yevsevy, against the Catholics of Pskov and the struggle going on over the construction of a Catholic Cathedral in that town.
In order to halt the construction of the Catholic Cathedral, Archbishop Yevsevy wrote to local leaders and President Vladimir V. Putin, protesting the Catholic Church's "aggression" and "expansionist goals" in Russia. "Taking advantage of the fruits of our current democracy, the enemies of our state are preparing a new expansion of Catholicism, which on the territory of Russia always resulted in war," he said.
The NYT quoted Rev. Ioann Mukhanov, the Orthodox priest in Pskov as saying the Catholic Church was proselytising, seeking converts among orphans, among others. "It's obvious," he said, "that they are planning to interfere with children of our Orthodox families."
This sort of language, referring to Catholics as "enemies of our state" and suggesting that their growth could result in "war" and family division, invokes fear, cultivates hostility and fans religious intolerance. Orthodox believers and right-wing ultra-nationalists have staged intimidating protests.
DEFINING PROSELYTISM
In a report by Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE / RL) the head of the Roman Catholic Church in Russia, Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, raises the contentious issue of proselytism. His observations are extremely significant because they cut to the very core issue of religious freedom, an issue that relates to Protestants as much as Catholics.
"Kondrusiewicz also said the Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches have a different understanding on the concept of proselytizing. He said the Catholic Church does not automatically consider all native-born Russians to be Russian Orthodox. 'You can hardly call an atheist who was baptized in the Orthodox Church but [who] had no relations with any church during his life an Orthodox believer. If at some point in his life, this person chooses to become a Catholic, it can't be called an act of proselytizing [by the Catholic Church],' Kondrusiewicz said.
"Aleksandr Abramov is an official with the external-affairs department of the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church. He disagrees with the Catholic point of view and says Russia was and is an Orthodox country and has its own traditions of Christianity. 'We consider everyone who was baptized in an Orthodox way or has Orthodox roots to belong without any doubt to Orthodox tradition. And we consider these people to be in our fold and we are against such a development when our [believers] are being taken away from us, very often by indecent means,' Abramov said." (Full article - see link 1)
Several Catholic clergy and Protestant church workers have recently had their visas revoked and have been deported from Russia. (See Keston Institute articles - link 2.)
from:
http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/486.htm
