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TUESDAY April 25, 2000 vol. 11, no. 81 SECTION THREESee why so many consider the Daily CATHOLIC as the "USA Today for CATHOLICS!"
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WORLDWIDE NEWS & VIEWS with a CATHOLIC slant continued:
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That is a question England's Keston Institute has posed in releasing a study of newly-elected Russian president Vladimir Putin and his stance on religious freedom in the former Soviet Union. While awaiting his inauguration in May, Putin seems more intent on "show" rather than "function," and his signing of the "March Law" may very well be only an outward posture rather than a sincere conviction to allow religious freedom in Russia long torn by communism. continued inside.
LONDON, APR 23 (ZENIT.org).- Geraldine Fagan and Lawrence Uzzell of
England's Keston Institute have written a very painstaking report on
religious freedom and Church-State relations in President-elect Vladimir
Putin's Russia.
According to the study, in Church-State relations, as in other areas,
observers report mixed signals from the new administration. Putin
himself is spending the period leading up to his official inauguration
in May by visiting the Russian armed forces and presiding at
prize-giving ceremonies, rather than discussing policy initiatives.
It is important to recall that Russia's most notorious violations of religious freedom have little to do with such legalistic questions. For example, the native Protestant congregations (and, increasingly, religious bodies connected with foreign churches) that are refused the right to rent public halls for their worship, often have full legal registration, and all the rights that ostensibly flow therefrom.
This new national security policy could result in increased restrictions on Western Christian missionaries, especially those from the United States. It is difficult to pinpoint the precise extent to which such missionaries are being pressured to scale down their activity or leave Russia. Some maintain that they do not encounter difficulties, especially if they keep a low profile. Those who do encounter problems, are often very reluctant to report them to the U.S. Embassy or speak candidly to reporters for fear of repercussions on their congregations.
However, judging by known cases, which at present are confidential, it appears that the federal intelligence service (FSB) pays special attention to such missionaries and regards missionary activity as being a particularly effective cover for the CIA. Such suspicions are exacerbated when missionaries try to enter Russia with visas stating non-religious purposes, as many increasingly do, the Keston report reveals.
It is quite likely that the local FSB departments will interpret the religious aspects of the new security policy as a signal to step up intimidation. Given the fact that it is usually possible to do this without the missionaries making public complaints, the methods used to restrict missionary activity will thus continue to be intimidation and attempts to prosecute under criminal law (e.g. for non-payment of taxes, smuggling foreign currency in or out of the country, etc.)
Religious freedom is a convenient principle to support, since, unlike freedom of speech, it is of immediate concern to a far smaller number of people and is easier to control. As long as Putin purports to uphold religious freedom, it is likely that there will be attempts to restrict it in provinces where the administration is eager to maintain a large degree of autonomy from Moscow, or is procommunist, or is under strong pressure from an Orthodox bishop who is intolerant of other confessions (or is a combination of all these).
Incidents reflecting this phenomenon have already taken place. In reaction to the provincial governments' efforts to preserve the degree of centralization, which they achieved during the 1990s, Putin will push for more centralized structures in all areas of life, almost certainly including religion. The new administration will probably create some kind of structure along the lines of the Council of Religious Affairs, which was barred by law from 1990 to 1997, in order to make local officials answerable to Moscow and not to local mayors and governors, the study explains.
Relations with the Orthodox Church Likewise, the report points out that after the initial, largely symbolic portrayal of a close relationship between Putin and Patriarch Aleksi in early January, the new administration is now maintaining a greater distance from the Moscow Patriarchy. This seems likely to continue.At present Putin is cultivating the image of a lukewarm Orthodox believer and no longer making public statements supporting Russia's "traditional" confessions in the same way as, for example, Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov. A close alliance with the Moscow Patriarchy is now politically risky due to continued revelations about the Church's illicit trading activities and the increasingly public close relationship between the Patriarch and the shady figure of Gulya Sotnikova. Although Putin receives unstinting support from the Moscow Patriarchy for the war in Chechnya, Patriarch Alexy recently upbraided the West for double standards in its criticism of the Chechen war, the Patriarchy appears to have received little in return other than a presidential guard for Alexy.
One likely moment for this switch to take place will be after the new re-registration deadline at the end of 2000. The dramatic, albeit isolated, case of the move to liquidate 13 religious organizations in the Voronezh region of central Russia may be a foretaste of what will happen in 2001, when all local justice departments will be legally obliged to do what the one in Voronezh chose to do (it disregarded the express warning of the Ministry of Justice on the postponement of the time available for re-registration).
The same scenario is likely to be played out in every region of Russia at the end of the year 2000 and the beginning of 2001. The question is whether the Putin administration will allow this, or introduce a further change in the law to prevent it. This in turn depends upon how long Putin chooses to continue cultivating an image of favoring religious freedom, the Keston report concludes. ZE00042001
Meanwhile also in England, Archbishop Cormac Murphy-O'Connor has issued an appeal to all priests to spend more time in daily prayer and reflection. The message is very clear to all priests, that their vocation is sublime and their daily lives must be lived in the sublimity of Christ's call. Without personal time for prayer, the priests are in danger of being too much involved in worldly matters, rather than shepherding their flocks as Christ directed His Apostles and disciples to do.
continued inside.
LONDON (CWNews.com) - The new Archbishop of Westminster has
called on his priests to set aside more time for personal
prayer.
Preaching at the Chrism Mass at Westminster Cathedral on
Tuesday, Archbishop Cormac Murphy-O'Connor said "there must
be time spent before God."
"Yes, your Office, the Mass, the liturgy but also quietness
before God," he said. "If we persevere in it, from time to
time God's glory breaks through, touching us often when
things are most difficult. It is then that God comforts us
with his presence."
Archbishop Murphy-O'Connor also reassured his priests that
their work was appreciated by lay people and that there was
"no need for any identity crisis of priests."
"You are better than you think you are," he said. "The
close bond and affection between the people and their
priest is something that is very profound, very
comfortable, very real."
The archbishop encouraged his priests to dwell on the
positive rather than negative aspects of their priesthood.
"I do not lose sleep over falling numbers because I leave
that to God," he said. "What I want is a prayerful,
enthusiastic clergy, open to new ideas and not worrying if
they fail. After all, we are, are we not, witnesses to
someone whose life ended in dying on the cross and who rose
to new life. It is in dying that we live."
Facts have surfaced that Saint Theresa Benedicta of the Cross, better known to all as Saint Edith Stein, wrote to Pope Pius XI regarding the uprising of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime. Speculation is that it may have prompted the Holy Father to write his encyclical "Mit brennedender Sorge" released on March 14, 1937 as the fuhrer was amassing his troops for what would be an all-out assault on Europe. The saint's letter is preserved in the Vatican Archives. continued inside.
ROME, APR 23 (ZENIT.org).- A very distressing letter from Edith Stein
(St. Theresa Benedicta of the Cross) about the dangers of Hitler's
ideology might have been the origin of Pope Pius XI's encyclical "Mit
brennender Sorge." The pontifical document was published on March 14,
1937. It denounced the incompatibility between Nazism's racist, pagan
propositions and Catholicism.
Philosopher Edith Stein, of Jewish origin, a convert to Catholicism and
a Carmelite nun, wrote a letter to the Pontiff as soon as the racial
persecutions began, in which she foresaw all the consequences of
Hitler's fury. This information was disclosed by professor Angela Ales
Bello, dean of the Faculty of Philosophy of the Pontifical Lateran
University, during an interview on television channel Sat 2000. The
letter is preserved in the Vatican Archives.
ZE00042302
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