PARIS, Aug 7, 02 (CWNews.com) - A leading Orthodox theologian has said that the Russian Orthodox Church is using complaints of «proselytism» as a pretext for efforts to «impede the Catholic Church» in Russia.
Olivier Clement, one of the world's leading Orthodox scholars, said that while Catholic evangelists in Russia may have been guilty of occasional excesses, the main reason for the complaints raised by the Patriarchate of Moscow is a determination to stop the spread of Catholicism. The French theologian made his comments in an interview with the Religious Information Service.
The Catholic faith, Clement observed, has a strong appeal among educated Russians: «Western Catholicism is perceived as more intelligent, more educated, more seductive and, because of this, more likely to attract many more people, especially intellectuals, if allowed to affirm itself in Russia. The Orthodox Church wants to avoid this happening.»
Clement argued that «Russia is withdrawing into herself» today, and the Moscow Patriarchate shares with the Putting regime a «nostalgia for the old Russia, when church and state were identified with each other.» That attitude forms an obstacle to any important ecumenical progress, he said.
«I do not see possibilities in the short term for a dialogue at the official level between Catholics and Orthodox in Russia,» Clement said. But he predicted that ecumenical rapprochement would come in the long term. That progress, he added, awaits «another generation among Russian Christian intellectuals, and a renewal of the episcopate-- which has already started.»
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7. august 2002