Benedict XVI is making waves among the Russian Orthodox

A few weeks ago reader Robert Miller mused on the reason behind the timing of the CDF document about the true nature of the Church, writing:

Events may be providing an answer that should have been clear from the beginning. Perhaps the “target audience” for the CDF statement are the Orthodox (and perhaps especially the Russian Orthodox). After all, Kyrill of Moscow immediately welcomed it. Now, word comes, via Cardinal Etchegaray that a Rome/Moscow summit may be in the offing.

Although no mention is made of the CDF document, this news item (thanks, Robert!) from InterFax indicates that Pope Benedict XVI's recent motu proprio has caught the positive attention of some Eastern Orthodox leaders:

Alexy II greets Catholics as they reintroduce Latin Mass

Rome, August 30, Interfax - Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia has greeted the recent decree of Pope Benedict XVI providing more freedom to celebrate the ancient Latin Mass.

The motu proprio Summorum Pontificum that provides more freedom to use the pre-Vatican II Missal ‘is a positive fact,’ Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia said to comment on the Roman Catholic Church reintroducing her ancient liturgical form.

‘We strongly adhere to the tradition. Without being faithful to her liturgy the Russian Orthodox Church would have failed to survive persecutions in 1920s and 1930s,’ the Russian primate told the Italian daily Il Giornale a few days ago after celebration liturgy in the Cathedral of the Dormition in the Kremlin.

The patriarch opined that the pope’s decision might contribute to establishing closer links with the Orthodox Churches, the daily said.

And, from a Russian news agency:

Relations between the Orthodox and Catholic churches are improving, Russia's Patriarch and Pope Benedict XVI are considering meeting, Cardinal Roger Etchegaray said Tuesday following a meeting with the Russian spiritual leader.

The cardinal, 84, who headed the Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace from 1984 to 1998, and Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II, 78, met to discuss cooperation between European churches.

The cardinal said relations between the two churches were improving, which was demonstrated by a number of impressive initiatives that had taken place over the past year, including an Orthodox-Catholic conference held in Moscow on June 14-15, and a conference on Christianity, culture and moral values on June 19-21.

A joint conference on the first pontifical encyclical letter, God is Love, is scheduled for October 18-21.

The cardinal handed Alexy II a letter from Pope Benedict XVI and a golden pen. After reading the pontifical message the Russian patriarch promised to reply in written. "I am grateful for the care and wishes for a quick recovery. You can assure [the Pope] that I am feeling well," Alexy II told the cardinal.

Comments

[Jackson]

Good news. Orthodoxy sure is tempting, especially in light of the continuing debasement of the sacraments in the Roman rite. See this front-page story on confession, for example, from today's L.A. Times:

http://tinyurl.com/3yqjwt

[Dale Price]

The post-conciliar liturgical chaos appalled the Orthodox, by and large. Though they have their loons who want to try the same thing, horribly enough. But there is a genuine fear that reunion could end up mangling the Divine Liturgy.

I'm reminded of this story which circulated in traditionalist circles about Cardinal Kasper's visit to Greece:

Kasper went on this ecumenical mission to Athens, attended the Greek Orthodox liturgy in the morning and in the afternoon he was having lunch. Then the Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Athens (Christodoulos, head of the Church of Greece), who is a good friend of Count Capponi and Una Voce, asked his Eminence how he had enjoyed the liturgy in the morning. "Oh wonderful, wonderful," said the Cardinal, "I thought I was in heaven." Then the Archbishop said that he thought perhaps that they should make some changes to the Greek liturgy because, perhaps for modern people today, some of it is too mystifying. Kasper said, "No that would be a mortal sin. You mustn't change a thing. Keep it exactly as it is." And the Archbishop said, "Then why did you destroy your liturgy which was the equivalent of ours?"

[cranky]

This is beautiful.

Oh, I still can make a sizable list of sins deserving a rant (abortion, same sex marriage,relativism, consumerism, etc.). But there are delicious touches of something sacred at work, touches for which I am thankful. Your blog entry documents one of them.

Thank you.

[Robert Miller]

Benedict is refocusing ecumenism. He is trying to begin with the people who are closest to us: the churches (Orthodox) and ecclesial communities (i.e., Christian fundamentalists and Evangelicals whose separation stems from the "Reformation")who believe that Faith is vitally connected with Reason. Too often, despite the best efforts and intentions of Popes Paul VI and John Paul II, it must have appeared to the Orthodox and the Evangelicals that the practical thrust of post-Vatican II ecumenism was to reduce them to equivalence with pagans and agnostics.

Prior to the 1990s, this did not seem to be a major problem with the Orthodox, who were dominated by the Greeks and who had not yet experienced the revival of militant Islam. But, following the demise of the Soviet Empire, Moscow, the church God seemingly had abandoned, has emerged as the face of Orthodoxy.

Similarly, prior to the 1990s, Christian fundamentalists and Evangelicals had found it possible to imagine that they shared some kind of "communion" with the mainline ecclesial communities of "reformed" Western Christianity. The triumph of the "sexual revolution" and its culture of death among the mainline churches has left the fundamentalists and Evangelicals with nothing but the Bible -- which they think is enough -- but they are having to come to grips with the reality that the Christian life is countercultural. Not an easy ride for Americans who are used to thinking that this is a (Protestant) Christian nation among whom they are simply the most faithful Christians.

The Russian Orthodox and the American Christian Evangelicals paradoxically (and "Tocquevillianly")present themselves before Rome as the "abandoned" church. Their faith is real, centered in the Word, and confident that that faith can enlighten reason. They are post-European (in the sense that they have developed outside the modern European/American abandonment of European Christendom's original defining quest: fides quaerens intellectum).

Benedict is showing both the Orthodox and the Evangelicals that Rome has the keys they are looking for. And at the center is the mystery of the priesthood. For the Orthodox, this is welcome news -- Rome still believes that the priest is the guarantor in persona Christi of the sacramental life. For the Evangelicals, this is challenging (if not entirely unwelcome)news that, paradoxically (considering their Reformation heritage), much as they may agree with Rome about the content of "works", works alone do not avail unto salvation.

[Jackson]

It's hard to blame the Orthodox for being reluctant to unify, especially in light of priests conducting mass dressed as Barney the Dinosaur, for instance:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=fHi_VZLtcQ8

I visited this church recently. The seating arrangment? Round, of course. In general, the place looks like an Elks Lodge. You'd never know it's a Catholic church. Where's Benedict XVI's picture as you walk into a lobby area? Safely tucked away in a corner. We had to ask a receptionist to open the doors of the church so we could go in. As we walked in, I couldn't resist asking her (though I knew), "Isn't this the place where the priest conducted mass dressed as Barney?" "Yes," she said. I detected an element of shame in her voice.

We then happened to meet Father Fred. (Is it possible to take such a man - "Father Fred" - seriously? Is it possible to take a preacher dressed in a Hawaiian shirt - Rick Warren, also near me - seriously?) I asked him if he's planning to do another Barney mass on this Halloween. "Ah, we had a lotta fun with that one," said he, chuckle chuckle, "but it's too much trouble." Need it be said that his manner of speaking revealed, as it's meant to, that he's either a homosexual or pretending to be one?

[LJ]

Robert Miller,
A very interesting analysis. The Russian Orthodox and the Evangelicals, who'd have thunk it?

Actually, in retrospect, having virtually all of my family remaining in the Evangelical tradition, I occasionally hear discussions that have a marked "seige" quality about them. The one family member beside myself who went the apostolic sacramental route went to, guess what, the Carpatho-Russian Orthodox.

I have in the past jokingly said to my Evangelical brothers regarding the immmoral and anti-Christian state of our country, that if they ever find themselves with their backs up against the wall, just turn around and knock, because that wall is the door to the Catholic Church.

[Mary]

We needn't wait to light a candle and pray together "Ut Unum Sint". Through the internet, we can go to Mt. Athos to light our candles in a chapel at the Xenophontos monastery:

http://tinyurl.com/8fk7g

Mary

[Robert Miller]

LJ:

I have a friend who, about thirty years ago, having left his Southern Baptist moorings, latched onto High Church Anglicanism (so high, in fact, that he even found a parish in which the liturgy was done in Latin and was attended by Anglican nuns). He was strongly attracted to Catholicism, but his strong identification with English culture and history made it impossible for him to "come over" (even his intense reading of Chesterton and Belloc were of no avail). But he also could see that Anglicans (and especially Episcopalians) were burying themselves ever deeper in heresy.

He found his "answer" in Russian Orthodoxy -- which, at the time (late 1970s) blew me away.

I guess what I now see, in retrospect, is that it is an almost "heroic" project to try to live the Christian life without the sacraments. My friend at least found real sacraments for himself and his kids. I hope and pray that someday soon this will lead him and the Orthodox to finish the last mile of the road to Rome.

Benedict is beckoning them.