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Ren TV, Moscow, in Russian, 22 Feb 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Feb 22, 2004
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MOSCOW - [Presenter] A historic meeting has taken place today at the
residence of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia in the Chistyy Pereulok
[in Moscow]. On the last Sunday before Lent [when, according to the
Orthodox tradition, people forgive all previous offences to each other],
Aleksiy II met the envoy of the Pope, Cardinal Walter Kasper.
The meeting has been in question until today. The observers already call the
talks a success, at least for the Russian Orthodox Church. The cardinal said
that the Catholic Church would not set up a Greek Catholic Patriarchate in
Ukraine.
However, Aleksiy II has toughly reminded the envoy of John-Paul II about
the claims the Russian Orthodox Church has against the Vatican.
[Aleksiy II, captioned, speaking to Cardinal Kasper] Proselytism in the
territory of Russia and other CIS countries is spreading more and more
widely and broadly. I am offended with that, because, back in the Soviet
period, when there was no Catholic bishop or priest in Kazakhstan, the
Russian Orthodox Church was advocating the rights of Catholics living in
Kazakhstan.
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Cardinal Walter Kasper, the head of the Vatican's Pontifical Council,
touring the Assumption Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin, Sunday,
Feb. 22, 2004
(AP Photo)
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EDITOR: How does one deal with a person like Aleksiy II who does
not believe in a person's right to choose their own religious beliefs and
a person's right to choose one's own religious organization. This is
especially true of one lives within the region from the Black Sea to the
Baltic's to the Pacific Ocean, the self-proclaimed "kingdom" or "exclusive
territory" of [Czar] Aleksiy II and his monopolistic church beliefs.
Aleksiy II also obviously does not believe in the separation of church
and state and openly tries to use the governments of Russia and Ukraine
to perpetuate his desired, power-hungry, monopolistic position against
all other religious beliefs and religious organizations, Ukrainian Orthodox,
Catholic, Protestant, and so on.
Such power always corrupts and the Russian Orthodox Church has had
more than its share of corruption through the years as have some other
church structures. No church structure or organization anywhere should
be allowed to have a monopoly, or a state supported so-called exclusive
right to any territory or any group of persons.
FOR PERSONAL AND ACADEMIC USE ONLY
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