Russian Catholic Archbishop: We are following the rules of ecumenism

Still think the Balamand Statement is dead? Remember this?

“…On each side it is recognized that what Christ has entrusted to His Church…cannot be considered the exclusive property of one of our Churches… Pastoral activity in the Catholic Church no longer aims at having the faithful of one Church pass over to the other; that is to say, it no longer aims at proselytizing among the Orthodox….”

(Interfax) – Head of the Catholic Archdiocese of Mother of God in Moscow Archbishop Paolo Pezzi urged priests not to compete with Orthodox pastors, but to look for new ways to develop inter-confessional dialogue.

“We should avoid the temptation of considering Catholic Church an isolated confessional community,” Pezzi said at the diocesan conference in the Moscow Region.

The Archbishop stressed that in Russia the Catholic Church witnesses to Christ together with the Orthodox Church, and thus the clergy “shouldn’t be disappointed with misunderstanding, but avoiding the spirit of competition, should find all possible ways to develop common witness.”
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Secretary for inter-Christian relations of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations Archpriest Igor Vyzhanov, speaking at the conference expressed hope that today when there are more facts of cooperation of the Churches in international organizations in New York and Strasbourg, such cooperation will be developed in Moscow as well.