US embassy cable - 05VATICAN400

UNCLAS  VATICAN 000400 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT FOR EUR/WE (Levin); EUR/RUS; DRL/IRF (Hewett and Mayland) 
 
E.O. 12958 N/A 
TAGS: PREL, PHUM, SOCI, VT, RU 
SUBJECT: ORTHODOX AND CATHOLICS PURSUE CULTURAL COOPERATION 
 
Ref: a) 04 Vatican 3308; b) 04 Vatican 2671; c) 04 Vatican 
 
1171 
 
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Summary 
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1.  (SBU) Holy See officials have told us recently they are 
encouraged by "small signs" of progress in Orthodo 
2.(SBU) Holy See Country Director for Russia Monsignor 
Julio Murat told us that he has seen an increasing openness 
on the part of some Orthodox to the Vatican in recent 
months on cultural issues.  Official statements by some 
Orthodox authorities and Russian politicians remain cool to 
the Catholic Church, he said, but more and more often 
Vatican authorities were finding a welcoming reception at 
universities or cultural events to which they were invited. 
Murat said he took heart in these "small signs." 
 
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Cardinal and Metropolitan Join Forces 
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3.  (U) Recent events back Murat's observations.  In 
December, Orthodox Metropolitan Filaret of Minsk (also 
President of the Theological Commission of the Orthodox 
Church) invited the President of the Pontifical Council for 
Culture (formally known as the Council for Non-Believers), 
Cardinal Paul Poupard, to present the keynote address at a 
conference on the importance of Christian values to Europe. 
A press statement from Poupard's Vatican office said the 
conference in Minsk was "the fruit of 25 years" of contacts 
between the two churchmen.  Immediately before traveling to 
Belarus for the December conference, Cardinal Poupard 
inaugurated an exhibit in his office of two-dozen icons 
painted by Russian artists.  One of the icons had been 
blessed by Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II and given to 
Poupard for delivery to Pope John Paul II. 
 
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Library Promotes Unity 
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4.(SBU) Cardinal Poupard and Metropolitan Filaret had 
also been together in Moscow in November 2004 for the 
inauguration of the Library of the Holy Spirit, an 
Orthodox-Catholic research center where scholars can work 
together to promote Christian thought.  During that visit 
Poupard and Patriarch Alexy issued a communiqu expressing 
their agreement on the need for "collaboration between the 
churches in the cultural realm, especially in light of the 
secularization, indifference toward religion, and 
activities of new religious groups" in Europe.  After 
returning to Rome, Poupard told Ambassador Nicholson that 
he had been impressed by the welcome he received in Moscow, 
and by the interest in Orthodox-Catholic cooperation he had 
seen on the part of ordinary Russians.  He told the 
Ambassador he saw hope for advancement of Orthodox-Catholic 
relations via the cultural route, even if the road was 
rougher when it came to theological issues. 
 
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Shared Values 
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5.(U) In an assessment of ecumenical relations during 
the January 18-25 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, the 
Vatican official responsible for Orthodox Church issues, 
Polish Jesuit Jozef Maj, said relations had "developed 
notably."  He said the positions of Catholics and Orthodox 
 
were almost convergent when it came to moral issues and 
social teaching, and that this commonality should lead to 
Christians having a greater impact on European society. 
Maj also noted educational collaboration between the two 
churches that includes scholarships for Orthodox priests to 
 
study at Vatican universities. 
 
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Comment 
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6.  (SBU) The Vatican had high hopes for the effect that 
the Pope's return of the famed Kazan icon would have on 
OrthodoxCatholic relations (ref a).  Instead, the reaction 
from Patriarch Alexy and some other Orthodox leaders fell 
well short of Holy See expectations.  Nevertheless, the 
goodwill that that gesture, and other "small steps" in 
relations have generated may now be paying dividends, at 
least on the cultural level.  The Orthodox and Catholic 
Churches' shared aversion to European secularism make them 
natural allies in combating what they both regard as a 
central threat to faith in Europe.  American Archbishop 
John Foley, President of the Pontifical Council for Social 
Communications, is now planning his own trip to Russia this 
spring to help maintain any new momentum in relations. 
 
HARDT 
 
 
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 2005VATICA00400 - Classification: UNCLASSIFIED