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What is the future of ecumenical diplomacy? 

The refusal of Patriarch Kirill to participate in the World Congress of Religious Leaders is an important sign of the delicate situation in which ecumenical diplomacy finds itself. In this article we analyze the most important variables to be taken into consideration at this moment.

Andrea Gagliarducci-September 10, 2022-Reading time: 5 minutes

Photo: Papa Francesco and Patriarch Kirill during their meeting at Avana in 2016. ©Foto di SNC/Paul Haring

Testo originale del articolo in inglese qui

There will not be, for now, the second meeting between Pope Francis and the Patriarch of Moscow Kirill. The Patriarch has unexpectedly withdrawn his presence from the World Meeting of Religious Leaders, which will take place in Nur Sultan, Kazakhstan, on September 14 and 15, and in which Pope Francis will also participate. 

Patriarch Kirill had confirmed his participation for some time, and it could be said that one of the reasons why Pope Francis wanted to visit Kazakhstan was the possibility of a second meeting with the Patriarch.

This second encounter was becoming unbelievably important at the moment when the conflict in Ukraine was discovered. Not only the Patriarchate of Moscow had supported the Russian decisions, but it was immediately isolated in the middle of Orthodoxy. But Metropolitan Onufry, who in Kyiv was leading the Orthodox Church attached to the Patriarchate of Moscow, has in fact tied ties with his mother house. While from the Patriarchate of Serbia, traditionally allied to Russia, aids arrived directly to Onufry, without passing through the mediation of Moscow.

They were small steps in an orthodox world that, with the Russian aggression in Ukraine, was beginning to change attitudes and also lines of force. Because on the one hand there is always Mosca, the largest Orthodox Church, the most powerful one linked to the State. But on the other hand there are the other "autocephalies" (the Orthodox Churches are national), which in the face of the Russian aggression have slightly changed their attitude. Incoraggiate, this is true, from the example of the Ukraine that already in 2018 had already chosen and obtained to become an autocephalous Church, winning from the secular administration of Mosca that was granted by Costantinopoli in the XVII century. 

The Ukrainian autocephaly had, in the end, led almost to the orthodox scisma, with Mosca on the one hand and the rest of the world orthodox on the other, or simply to observe. And it is perhaps precisely that autocephaly that must be kept to really understand the pains of Mosca, those of a Ukraine always farther away from the Russian brothers, always closer to Europe. 

What will happen in Kazakhstan?

There will be no meeting with Patriarch Kirill, but this does not mean that Pope Francis' trip will not have meaning or impact. The Pope will meet the other religious leaders, he will have personal talks with each one, trying to establish points of dialogue.

Some complexity, in general, was given by the protocol. The Pope does not participate in meetings organized by other governments, but organizes the meeting or is not the main host. A mere participation risks undermining his figure, and it is something the Holy See has always been cautious about. 

At the same time, the World Meeting of Religious Leaders held in Nur Sultan is, in the end, an extraordinary opportunity to establish contacts.

Dal 2019, il Pontificio Consiglio per il Dialogo Interreligioso ha stabilito un protocollo di intesa con l'organizzazione dell'Incontro Mondiale dei Leader Religiosi, al culmine di relazioni molto buone stabilite sin da quando, nel 2017, la Santa Sede presenziò con suo padiglione all'Expo nel Paese. 

Now, Pope Francis will attend this meeting, accompanied by Cardinal Miguel Angel Ayuso Guixot, president of the dicastery and now practically at home in Kazakhstan,

And it is strange that the Pope will not be able to welcome his presence in Nur Sultan to meet the Chinese President Xi Jinping, who will be in Kazakhstan in the same days. It would be an extraordinary shock for the Kazakh president, but it would be even more so for Russia, which would not be willing to show the meeting as a sign of the Pope's openness also towards those countries marginalized by the West. 

The possibilities to meet Kirill

As mentioned above, it will not be Patriarch Kirill, but Metropolitan Antonij, the new head of the Department of External Relations of the Patriarchate of Moscow. 

Kirill's statement can be explained in a very concrete way: the Patriarch of Moscow does not want to be met by the Pope "on the sidelines" of another event, but he wants that meeting to have a dignity, to produce a document, to represent a military platform. 

This is because, in the face of the possible isolation also in the orthodox world, the Patriarchate of Moscow needs to show that there is at least one leader, and among the most respected ones, who gives credence to its operation. And this notwithstanding that the Pope did not refuse to define Kirill as a "Putin's priest" in the videoconference of last March 16 - Pope Francis himself admitted it in an interview - and notwithstanding that Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Dicastery for the Promotion of Christian Unity, has defined as "eresia" some of the orthodox theological positions on the Russian Orthodox Church, the Great Russia. 

It is so true that it was Kirill himself, last March, to make contact with Pope Francis, and not vice versa, as Cardinal Parolin said in an interview. 

Quali sviluppi ora?

After the meeting with Kirill, the Pope's presence represents for Kazakhstan not only the opportunity to celebrate 30 years of diplomatic relations with the Holy See, but also to strengthen a role in interreligious dialogue that has been developing since 2003, the year in which the World Meeting of Religious Leaders was held for the first time. 

At the end of the meeting there will be a joint statement, which - Kazakh officials have said - will be "distributed as an official document of the United Nations", and "will address the most current world problems, global conflicts, geopolitical tensions, social problems, including the dissemination of moral and ethical values". 

It is worth noting that the theme of the congress has been brought from Kazakhstan also to the attention of the authorities of the United Arab Emirates, so much so that the Kazakh ambassador to Abu Dhabi has held a press conference on the subject just a few days ago. And probably the final statement will have two models: the Abu Dhabi statement, or rather the statement on the Umana Fraternity signed by Pope Francis during his trip to the United Arab Emirates in 2019 together with the Grand Imam of al Azhar Ahmed al Tayyb; and the final statement of the meeting between Pope Francis and Kirill in Avana in 2016. 

In this way, the best of the latest models of dialogue developed by Pope Francis would be pursued, continuing on the path acceptable to the Holy See. 

A trip to Mosca or Kyiv?

There has been much talk of the trip to Kazakhstan as an achievement, or an anticipation, of a trip by Pope Francis to Moscow or Kyiv or in both places. As things stand, neither the trip to Moscow nor the one to Kyiv seem likely. Pope Francis maintains for some time that it is for medical reasons, and that he would like to go at least to Kyiv, where there is a pressing invitation, but that he cannot because his conditions do not allow it.

It is true, but it is only a partial explanation. A trip to Kyiv after the trip to Kazakhstan and an eventual meeting with Patriarch Kirill would have probably exacerbated the already deeply troubled Ukrainian people. Now, a trip to Kyiv after the encounter in Kazakhstan would have been more opportune, but at the same time it would have been seen as a ransom. 

The situation is different for Mosca, because for him an invitation serves, and yet that invitation has not been made. These are very difficult and delicate diplomatic situations, which are based on balances all to be deciphered.

Of course, the trip to Kakakhstan is subordinate to the other two trips that the Pope could undertake. But it has an ideal link with the trip to Gerusalemme that the Pope would have wanted to make on 14 June, followed by two days in Lebanon, where he would have met Patriarch Kirill.

It was all ready for the meeting, which then was postponed for "reasons of opportunity", leaving the Patriarchate of Mosca not little interdict. Perhaps this is also the reason, in practice, why Kirill decided not to go to Nur Sultan.

European reconciliation can only go through ecumenical dialogue. It is well known in Ukraine, where there is the Pan-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations, which has been bringing together the religious confessions of Ukraine for 25 years, and which makes precise appeals.

The Catholic Church may have a leading role in this ecumenical reconciliation. But, to put it in the words of His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, senior archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, "we can reconcile with our brothers. We cannot reconcile with geopolitics". 

The authorAndrea Gagliarducci

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