Talks between Vatican officials and the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow have ended without agreement on arranging what would be an historic meeting between the Pope and the Russian Patriarch. However, Russian church sources are quoted as saying the two sides did agree to send a joint team to western Ukraine, where the Orthodox Church is in dispute with the reviving Eastern-rite Catholic or "Uniate" Church over possession of church buildings and other property. Jan Repa, the BBC's Central European analyst, reports:

The Pope has for many years expressed a strong desire to visit Russia. The Russian government seems willing, but the Russian Orthodox Church says it would be inappropriate.

Last year, the Russian Orthodox Church twice called off planned meetings between the Pope and the Russian Patriarch, Alexis II, and reports from Moscow this week suggest there has been little progress on the subject.

The Russian Orthodox Church has two main complaints.

The first relates to the partial re-establishment of Catholic ecclesiastical structures within Russia. The second concerns disputes between the Orthodox and Uniate churches in Ukraine.

Historic rivalry

Underlying the disagreements are long-standing historical and cultural rivalries. Pope John Paul II - the first "Slav" Pope - has often expressed respect for the Orthodox tradition.

But, like other Popes before him, he continues to claim leadership of the "Universal Church" - something the Orthodox reject.

The Russian Orthodox Church accuses the Catholic Church of "aggressive proselytism". Put simply, the Orthodox Church asks why people in Russia should go to a Catholic church, when there is an Orthodox church available to them.

The Russian Church is trying to "recapture souls" lost during the Soviet era - but finds itself competing with other creeds: Protestants, Catholics as well as rival Orthodox churches, which have arisen or revived in the non-Russian states of the former Soviet Union.

A question of jurisdiction

An additional complication exists in bilateral relations.

While they disagree on issues like papal authority, they recognise the validy of each others' priests and the sacraments they dispense - a recognition not extended to Lutherans, Anglicans and others.

For the Russian Orthodox, this means the Vatican cannot establish parallel dioceses and parishes where the Orthodox Church already operates.

The Vatican claims that Catholic churches in Russia mainly cater for ethnic minorities like Germans and Poles; and that the Russian Orthodox Church has no formal right to church buildings in Ukraine and elsewhere, belonging to dioceses which in past centuries transferred their allegiance from Constantinople to Rome - and were forcibly incorporated into the Russian Orthodox Church in the Soviet period.

It is an intractable issue - bound up with all sorts of extra-religious factors.

The Vatican says the Pope cannot travel to Russia without the blessing of the Russian Orthodox Church. Old and increasingly frail as he is, this is an ambition that is likely to remain unfulfilled.
 

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