MOSCOW, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- The Russian Orthodox Church described Pope John Paul II's decision to create four permanent Roman Catholic dioceses in Russia as "an unfriendly act" and said the move reduced the chances of a meeting between (Russian) Patriarch Alexiy II and the pope.
The four dioceses had been Russia's four apostolic administrative districts: Moscow; the southern city of Saratov; Novosibirsk in central Siberia; and Irkutsk in eastern Siberia.
Apostolic districts have no jurisdiction and are administered directly from the Vatican.
Moscow patriarchate spokesman Igor Vyzhanov called the development an "unfriendly act which fails to take account of the Russian Orthodox Church's interests."
Before the 1917 Bolshevik revolution, the Catholic Church had two dioceses in Russia -- in the imperial capital, St. Petersburg, and in Saratov -- but these were shut down by the Bolsheviks. The districts were restored in 1991 when the government allowed temporary administrative districts were to operate. The church is currently estimated to have about 500,000 practitioners.
The Russian Orthodox Church views warily the gradual re-emergence of the Catholic church following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Russian Orthodox Church accuses the Catholics of "expansionism" and "missionary work" in Russia and Ukraine, and is particularly angered by the actions of the Ukrainian Uniates who -- Russian churchmen say -- have taken over many Russian Orthodox churches in Ukraine by force. The Uniate Church is a branch of the Orthodox church in communion with Rome.
Vsevolod Chaplin, the spokesman for the Orthodox patriarchate's foreign relations department, said Monday the four Catholic dioceses "creates an alternative church in Russia," and described Pope John Paul's decision as a "challenge to the Russian Orthodox Church. It is like the Orthodox Church appointing another pope in Rome."
But Vatican spokesman Joachim Navarro-Valls said the creation of the four dioceses was needed "to improve the pastoral assistance to Catholics present in the region, as they have insistently requested." He said the Russian government was not opposed to the change.
The Holy See's representative in Moscow, Archbishop Tadeusz Kondraschewicz, argued on Russian television that the Russian Orthodox Church had "set up many of its own dioceses overseas, in Catholic Poland and Lithuania."
The Vatican move is likely to diminish further the realization of Pope John Paul II's dream of visiting Russia. The pope was first invited to Moscow by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's during his visit to the Vatican. President Vladimir Putin has said he would not be against a visit of the pontiff to Russia as long as the pope and the patriarch agreed, but Patriarch Alexiy has consistently said that the Polish-born pope was not welcome in Russia.
The personal rift between the pontiff and the patriarch has deepened as John Paul II had visited one former Soviet republic after another from the Baltic to Central Asia. A senior Vatican prelate responsible for developing ties with other Christian Churches, Cardinal Walter Kasper, is due to visit Moscow in 10 days time, but it is now unclear whether he will be able to hold talks with any Russian Orthodox Church representatives.
