Cardinal Walter Kasper, the president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, has assured Russian Orthodox leaders that the Catholic Church does not intend plan to exclude the Moscow patriarchate from ecumenical dialogue.Returning from a visit to Moscow, where he had met with Orthodox Patriarch Alexei II, Cardinal Kasper told reporters in Rome that the Holy See looks forward to further progress in dealings with Moscow.
The cardinal, who avoided any concrete predictions about the next steps in ecumenical dialogue, portrayed his visit to Russia as an effort to become better acquainted with the regular life of the Russian Orthodox faithful.
The Interfax news service reported that before leaving Moscow, the cardinal had promised that the Vatican would not resume theological talks with Orthodox churches without including Russian Orthodox representatives.
The Moscow patriarchate pulled out of the most recent session of Catholic-Orthodox talks, held in October 2007 in Ravenna, Italy, to protest the seating of delegates from the Estonian Orthodox Church, which Moscow does not recognize.
Cardinal Kasper told an audience in Moscow that the dispute over the Estonian delegation was an "inter-Orthodox affair," involving a disagreement between the patriarchates of Moscow and Constantinople.
The Vatican will not interfere in that dispute, he said, but hopes for a compromise that will allow the joint Catholic-Orthodox commission to continue its work.
Upon his return to Rome the cardinal told Vatican that his talks with Patriarch Alexei had been "very positive, very constructive," and he saw a "new phase" opening in relations between Rome and Moscow.
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