Vatican officials in Geneva continue talks with Russian Orthodox
Andrzej Choromanski attended the World Council of Churches meeting in Geneva as a Vatican observer. The Pole is a member of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity. In an interview with kath.ch, Choromanski said of a possible meeting between Pope Francis and Patriarch Cyril in Kazakhstan: “Francis will do everything to help resolve the conflict.”
Although the World Council of Churches decided not to sanction the Russian Orthodox Church, it sharply criticized Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine at its most recent meeting in Geneva. As Andrzej Choromanski emphasized to kath.ch, the discussion in Geneva had come to the conclusion that the conversation “absolutely” had to be continued. For this you need “the Russian Orthodox Church at the table of ecumenical discussion”, which is why exclusion or suspension of membership is “not an option”. As an observer on the World Council of Churches, he welcomes this decision, Choromanski said. The Russian delegates in Geneva insisted that the “claim by some journalists” that Moscow justified the conflict should be better analyzed. But for him it is clear: “No Christian can justify this war theologically. We can only justify that a people defends itself against a war of aggression.”
Choromanski specified that he did not bring any official message from the head of the dicastery, Kurt Koch, or the pope to the meeting in Geneva, since he was only taking part in the deliberations as an observer. His presence is intended to express “appreciation and support for the work of the World Council of Churches”. He does not currently know whether there will be a meeting between Pope Francis and Cyril I in Kazakhstan. Officially, such a move has not yet been announced, despite the Pope’s express wish to travel to Kazakhstan. Overall, it is important that church representatives are discussed at the theological level, even in the context of geopolitical conflicts. “We don’t speak the language of politics,” emphasizes Choromanski. The Pope’s statement in the zoom conversation with Cyril that he was not a “cleric of the state” should also be read in this light.
Choromanski announced that 20 delegation representatives from the Catholic Church will take part in the General Assembly of the World Council of Churches, which will be held in Karlsruhe from August 31 to September 8. This was led by Cardinal Koch and consisted of bishops, priests and lay people from all over the world: “Our delegation is diverse and representative of the Catholic world church,” said the Pole, who is responsible for multilateral ecumenical initiatives at the Unity Dicastery.
A “Statement for Unity” was also signed in Geneva, which was intended to underline the “visible unity of all Christians”. “This unity is the main goal of the ecumenical movement,” Choromanski said. But it is also about action in the current time, which is marked by conflicts and humanitarian emergencies as well as the challenges of climate change: “All these aspects are addressed in the ‘Statement of Unity’. I think it’s good news.”
(kath.ch-cs)