Russia, enthusiasm and amazement for the Pope's Encyclical
Moscow Archbishop: important the reaffirmed distance from proselytism and the call to charity in a society which is still experiencing the failure of the Marxist model. Russian press amazed by Benedict XVI's "courage".
Saint Petersburg (AsiaNews) In Russia, the most relevant aspects of the "Deus est caritas" encyclical are its call within the Church to social engagement and the distance that exists between the Church's charitable works and any intention to proselytize. Monsignor Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, archbishop of Moscow's Mother of God diocese, agreed to share with AsiaNews his thoughts on the papal letter. Currently on duty in Saint Petersburg, the Archbishop also pointed out that reactions in the local media have been positive and even amazed.
"I am very happy," he told AsiaNews, "that the Holy Father energetically stressed the fact that the Church's charitable works must not serve as an instrument to convert or to proselytize." "Over the past 15 years," he added, "we have continued to remind people in Russia that, in our social efforts, we always have before us a person, who may be a believer or a non-believer, a Catholic or not: our ultimate objective is to help the human being in need."
He underlined that it is important that "the Pope himself, our highest authority, stressed that proselytism is a policy foreign to the Catholic Church." The Russian Orthodox Church has always been very critical of would-be "proselytism" carried out by Catholics in post-Soviet regions, a reason for which Pope John Paul II was not able to visit Russia and an on-going source of tension between the two religious communities.
The call to charity and social efforts addressed to Catholics is another very timely matter in Russia, also in the context of collaboration with the Orthodox. "The consequences of the failure of Marxism that the Pope recalled are realities that we witness every day in Russia," Kondrusiewicz said. "Russia is a society afflicted by profound problems: over 20% of the population live under the poverty line, some 70% of young families are divorced, abortion is widespread, as are drug and alcohol addiction." "We are well aware," he added, "of what social justice means when its anchored to a faithless ideology." "By redefining the meaning of love, which is otherwise devalued in our times," he explained, "the Pope indicates to us that this is the key to all our current problems, even in Russia, where eros has so often become a commodity."
The Archbishop then confirmed that, at the social level itself, there is the potential for increased collaboration with the Orthodox: "In recent years, whenever civil authorities organize conference or debates on social problems, they always invite other confessions along with the Orthodox."
Archbishop Kondrusiewicz also said that the encyclical aroused considerable interest in the Russian press. "Many journalists were amazed by the fact that the Pope was not afraid to speak about love even in the delicate terms of its more physical meaning, as eros. The media are very interested in this, as religious authorities never usually speak about such things."
.png)
