Orthodox Christians wary of papal visits

National Catholic Reporter, April 13, 2001 by John L. Jr. Allen

Tensions impede pope's efforts at closer ties

For a sense of what John Paul II will be up against when he ventures into the heartland of Eastern Orthodoxy in coming months, St. Basil's in Rome offers an illustrative point of departure.

In the heart of the city just around the corner from the Via Veneto, an ultra-chic shopping and dining district, is the Church of St. Basil. Nestled among banks and insurance companies, it's the sort of real estate most religious organizations can only dream of affording.

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexei II could have had St. Basil's for nothing. He turned it down, though he's eager for a base in Rome, because it was offered as a gift from the pope. Instead, construction began Jan. 13 on a new church on the grounds of the Russian ambassador to Italy.

Pope John Paul II, eager for improved relations with Orthodoxy, had badly wanted Alexei to take his gift. Negotiations went on for more than a year. An icon commissioned by the pope was to be presented when St. Basil's was handed over.

In the end, however, a thousand years of bad blood between East and West proved insuperable. In mid-December, Alexei notified the Vatican he could not accept a handout from the figure that some within the world's 228 million Orthodox believers still regard as an enemy of the faith.

Signs indicate this anti-papal resentment could be on display when John Paul visits Greece May 4 and 5 and the Ukraine June 23-27, possibly surprising Catholics with its tenacity and depth.

Angry Greek abbots, for example, have vowed resistance, referring to the pope in an open letter as an "arch-heretic" and "the two-horned grotesque monster of Rome." In the Ukraine, trip planners from the Vatican have faced blockades.

Such sentiments are unlikely to keep the pope away. Having played a central role in the political reunification of Europe, John Paul II has made spiritual reunification his new priority. Above all, this means closer ties with the 15 Eastern Orthodox churches, where John Paul believes a degree of spiritual depth and doctrinal loyalty often missing in the West has been preserved.

It's unclear, however, over the din of resistance, how many Orthodox may be willing to embrace the papal visit.

John Paul has had success with some of Orthodoxy's autonomous branches, which divide along national and linguistic lines. He was named "Man of the Year" in Romania following his May 1999 trip there. Armenia and Georgia have also given him warm receptions.

The Greek and Russian Orthodox churches, however, remain steadfast in deep reservations about Rome.

In Greece, where 97 percent of the population is baptized into Orthodoxy, the church's Holy Synod voted not to oppose the papal visit, stressing that it will be a "personal" trip following the footsteps of St. Paul.

The vote has not softened opposition.

A mid-March letter signed by 169 abbots, representing Greece's 1,750 Orthodox monks and nuns, warned of "dynamic expressions of opposition." The influential monks of Mount Athos joined in voicing disapproval.

"The church of Greece is trying to discourage protests," Haris Konidaris, a spokesperson for Greek Orthodox Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens, told NCR. He said he could "guarantee" that the abbots who wrote the letter would not take part in demonstrations.

At the same time, Konidaris said, church leaders cannot control the actions of "more fanatic, fundamentalist" believers.

John Paul arrives in Greece at a moment in which conservative Orthodox factions are already feeling defensive. Thousands marched in Athens in November to oppose eliminating religious affiliation from national identity cards, a government move some regarded as an effort to reduce Orthodoxy's influence. More than 2 million people signed a petition opposing the plan, out of a total population of 10.5 million.

"Anyone who tampers with our religion will see his arm wither" was among the slogans.

In another frosty signal, Christodoulos has declined to join political leaders planning to greet John Paul at the Athens airport.

In the Ukraine, approximately 1,000 Orthodox believers took part in a cross-bearing procession in early March asking that the papal trip be cancelled. A new group calling itself the "Orthodox Path" has sprung up, picketing the Ukrainian parliament building in Kiev, with the same demand. A Vatican advance team was met in the city of Sevastopol with blockades by Orthodox protesters.

The main Orthodox body in the Ukraine is tied to Moscow, and Alexei has expressed opposition to the trip.

Some Catholic observers say that the depth of feeling points to a possibility of nasty demonstrations when the pope arrives.

"The problem with some Orthodox is not that they don't know what to believe, but they don't know how to behave," said Jesuit Fr. Robert Taft, an expert on Orthodoxy who teaches at Rome's Pontifical Oriental Institute.

Taft told NCR there is a growing tide of fundamentalism within Orthodoxy that does not shrink from "vulgar rudeness" in dealing with perceived threats to Orthodoxy's strongholds.