Spreading culture

The Presence of the Pope. Passion for Unity
An interview with Archbishop Antonio Mennini, Apostolic Nuncio in the Russian Federation: “We have to start off from words like ‘friendship,’ ‘collaboration’ and ‘communion’”. The road of ecumenism

edited by Giovanna Parravicini

Your Excellency, the situation of uncertainty (social, economic, and even of life) lived in Russia, little different from other parts of the world, lays a heavy burden of trials on man. How does the Church respond?
It seems to me that today, before the conflicts that are ravaging the world and the challenges of globalization and secularization that regard the West in particular and are spreading rapidly in Russia, too, the Gospel announcement acquires a more and more crucial import for the future well-being of mankind. Russia is a huge country, with an extraordinary spiritual and cultural tradition, but also a heavy burden of suffering collected in the course of her history–sufferings that cannot fail to determine the mentality, at both individual and social levels. The Orthodox Church is becoming more and more aware of its own mission to educate, and there are more and more attempts to answer the challenges of the contemporary world. We see it in the pastoral care of the youth, in the field of theological culture, in the development of a social doctrine. We Catholics, who are a small minority in Russia, have been given a particular mission, and to me a very precious one: an ecumenical work, so that through common conversion to Christ we may be more and more a witness to the world of the unity Christ prayed for as the supreme miracle, “so that the world may believe.”

So what concrete contribution can the Catholic Church make in this situation?
For years, the Church in the East nourished itself by drawing on the wealth of the tradition of the Christian East. To give just a few examples: The importance of the theology of the icon and Russian religious philosophy (Chomjakov, Solov’ëv, and so on), in giving us a greater awareness of our own Christian identity and of its universality. Add to this the witness of the Russian martyrs of the 20th century, who have often infused new lifeblood into our bourgeois Western communities. I think that today the Catholic Church’s contribution could be that of offering the Russian Church and society its own witness and experience of Christian presence, above all in the cultural and social fields, which because of historical circumstances remained the monopoly of the atheistic regime.

In Russia, one can’t avoid the question of relationships between the Orthodox Church, the Catholic Church, Protestantism and other religions. What has been your experience in this first period of your mandate, experiences you think are significant in their capacity for real ecumenism?
We cannot hide the fact that relationships between the Catholic Church and the most numerous Church present today within orthodoxy remain rather complex. On the other hand, I am deeply convinced that, given the good will, there are no problems that cannot be solved, amongst brothers. As we work towards this, we must not be too hurried. For a whole series of circumstances, in Russia the word “ecumenism” has become equivocal. I think we need to start off from words like “friendship,” “collaboration,” and “communion,” sharing each other’s joys and problems, words whose profound meaning, I believe, everyone understands. The most significant experiences of ecumenism, as I have lived it with many orthodox brothers, can be born primarily from our readiness to open ourselves to this people, to its cultural and spiritual traditions, in the awareness that it is an enrichment for ourselves. This is what will enable us to understand better the word “ecumenism” in the value accorded it by the Gospels and by the Church’s magisterium.
We are called to work tirelessly so as to learn and see what is essential in our faith and in that of our brothers: every experience and charism, as I have seen Fr Giussani often stress, in so far as it is authentic, is in fact a way to the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ which remains one, despite human divisions and sins.

In your long experience as Papal Nuncio, what does it mean to be the Pope’s presence in the countries to which you are sent?
It is not easy to answer in a few words. I think, though, that apart from the diplomatic and administrative tasks entrusted to every representative of the Holy See in the world, the most comforting and enthralling aspect of a Nuncio’s mission is that of (and I say it with fear and trembling, aware of being an “earthenware jar”) being able to support people’s hope, witnessing that the Risen Christ is near them and has a face, the face of the Church and that of the Pope, a witness that embraces all cultures, nationalities and traditions. As for Russia, the magisterium of John Paul II is particularly meaningful, and the Catholic Church in Russia has to understand it and deepen its understanding more and more. No doubt, the pivot of John Paul II’s teaching is his conception of Christ as the Lord of the cosmos and of history, Redeemer of man and insistent Beggar of his love, living Presence that transfigures the whole of reality and penetrates all the windings of history. Only in this way is it possible to explain the embrace of man, of the whole of man and of every man, in all time and every country, that characterizes John Paul II’s pontificate, and his heartfelt, overwhelming appeal to unity: a unity that can exist amongst the Churches, amongst the various parts of Europe, in the world, precisely because it is founded on the indivisibility of the Body of Christ, torn by human divisions and sin.