Dad wants to make peace

The new Vatican ambassador arrived in Moscow

The Vatican is sparing no effort to normalize damaged relations with Russia. On Saturday, the new official representative of the papal throne, Archbishop of Ferenti Antonio Mennini, arrived in Moscow. Addressing the Russian authorities with greetings, he expressed the hope that “relations between the Holy See and the Russian Federation will be able to develop increasingly in the spirit of mutual trust and mutual cooperation.”

After the previous apostolic nuncio, Georg Zur, was recalled last fall, the Vatican downgraded its diplomatic relations with Russia, announcing that it would appoint a chargé d'affaires rather than an ambassador to Moscow. However, already on November 6, Monsignor Mennini was appointed as the new ambassador of the papal throne in Russia.

Let us recall that the diplomatic relations of the Vatican with Russia became seriously complicated after the transformation in February 2002 of temporary Catholic structures in Russia into full-fledged dioceses constituting a new Catholic church province. The authorities' dissatisfaction was, first of all, caused by the lack of coordination between the Vatican's actions and the Russian Orthodox Church. As a result, over the past year, without explanation, several Catholic clergy were denied entry into the country, including Bishop Jerzy Mazur, the head of one of the newly formed dioceses.

Then, commenting on the actions of the Russian Foreign Ministry, the press secretary of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Russia, Viktor Khrul, stated: “We have a feeling that they are punishing us for something, they want us to behave differently.” “The authorities have found our Achilles heel - the lack of priests from among Russian citizens,” says Mr. Khrul. However, despite denials of entry visas, ten new foreign Catholic priests entered the country over the past year.

The new apostolic nuncio, a Vatican diplomat with 20 years of experience, said on Saturday that he was “a great honor to be the representative of the Holy See and the Pope in this great noble country, which is the holy Russian land.” Despite the serious contradictions that arose between the two churches last year, the Catholic Church, according to Monsignor Mennini, “feels a sense of respect and reverence, great and sincere gratitude for the spiritual and cultural tradition of the Russian Church.”

It is symbolic that the papal ambassador’s appeals to the authorities and representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church were delivered in Russian. Before his appointment to Moscow, Monsignor Mennini was ambassador to Bulgaria, which, like Russia, is a traditionally Orthodox country. Apparently, the unexpectedly harsh reaction of the authorities and the public to the formation of a Catholic church province in Russia is prompting the Vatican to reconsider and soften its policy towards Moscow.

Kirill MIKHAILOV