The Moscow Patriarchate versus the Vatican Papacy

Moscow Versus the Vatican: Is the Fight Over?

Analysis

The religious and political rivalry between Russia and the Vatican may finally be ending after nearly a millennium. In a historic moment, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, will meet his Roman Catholic counterpart, Pope Francis, on Feb. 12 in Cuba. It is the first meeting between the two religious bodies since the Great Schism of 1054.

That year, Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism split into separate churches after the patriarch of Constantinople was excommunicated from the Catholic Church for his theological views. Similar to the split between Catholicism and Protestantism, out of the rift came separate Eastern (Orthodox) and Western (Catholic) churches. The Eastern Orthodox Church then further splintered regionally among Russian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Greek and Serbian Orthodox churches, each with its own patriarch and jurisdictions.

Pope Francis has done more to repair ties with Moscow than any Vatican leader before him. (FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP/Getty Images)

The Russian patriarchy in Moscow grew in importance not only because it oversaw — and still oversees — the largest Orthodox population but also because it was never subjected to Ottoman rule. During the Ottoman Empire, many European Orthodox clergy and followers from neighboring countries sought shelter in the Russian Empire, bolstering its importance. This led some Eastern Orthodox populations to label Moscow the “Third Rome,” or the center of gravity for Christianity — a designation that the Vatican has resented throughout history and that set the stage for an intense rivalry between the churches.

Changing Leaders, Enduring Conflict

Imperial and Soviet Russia continually accused the Catholic Church of trying to infiltrate its spheres of influence. These accusations were confirmed (in Moscow’s mind) under St. John Paul II, who was from Poland and who took an active role in promoting anti-communist movements across Central Europe. A popular slogan that spread a year after John Paul took the papacy was “The Party is for the People but the People are for the Pope.” The new pope was accredited with inspiring the first labor union not controlled by the Party in a Warsaw Pact country, a structure that eventually spread across many Communist regions. Despite the rancor, a month after the fall of the Berlin Wall, as the Soviets realized their grip on power was slipping, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev visited John Paul in the Vatican to try to mend ties. In a bid to relate to the pope, Gorbachev famously appealed to their shared Slavic ethnicity, but relations remained strained between the two.

St. John Paul II shakes hands with Orthodox Archbishop Ireney, patriarch of Moscow, in 1983. (VOTAVA/AFP/Getty Images)

The Russian Orthodox Church accused the Catholic Church of buying the adoration of Russians through its Catholic-based activities, such as financing orphanages and children’s programs in Russia in the 1990s. In 1997, then-President Boris Yeltsin passed legislation that classified the only legal religions in the country as Orthodox, Buddhism, Judaism and Islam. This led to a series of attacks (both by the state and the general population) on religious buildings, clergy and missionaries — particularly Catholic, Mormon, Jehovah’s Witness and Methodist.

Anti-Catholic sentiment increased after Russian President Vladimir Putin came to power. Putin used the Russian Orthodox Church as one of the tools to consolidate his popularity in the country. In addition, Putin used the Church as a foreign policy tool, particularly by reunifying the Russian Orthodox Church with the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia in 2007 after 80 years of separation. This was Moscow’s attempt to expand Russia’s influence through the hundreds of churches outside the former Soviet territory. The current patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Kirill, who is rumored to have been a KGB agent, has raised the church’s profile by taking positions on issues ranging from the economy to military activities.

Russian Patriarch Kirill will meet with Pope Francis in Cuba in the biggest step toward reconciliation between the Vatican and the Russian Orthodox Church since the fall of the Soviet Union. (ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP/Getty Images)

A general warming of relations between Russia and the Vatican began after the passing of John Paul, and diplomatic relations between Russia and the Vatican were formally restored in 2009. But it has been under Pope Francis that relations have looked the brightest in a millennium. Over his three-year papacy, Francis has reached out to many other branches of Christianity and has grown in popularity far beyond the Catholic Church and Christianity. But like Kirill, Francis has taken strong stances on many global issues, such as criticizing Russia’s actions in Ukraine as well as the West’s sanctions against Russia.

Now Russia sees an opportunity to use its relationship with the Vatican to justify its position in the world and to shed a softer light on Russia, particularly in the West. With the announcement of the meeting between Kirill and Francis, Russia’s ambassador to the Holy See said the meeting was confirmation of “Russia’s role in Christian civilization.” This comes after Kirill deemed Russia’s actions inside of Syria a holy war to protect Christians from terrorism and to defend the Syrian people. Such statements are meant to make Russia and its actions relatable and less hostile; they are similar in that regard to Gorbachev’s appeals to the Vatican before the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Despite the positive steps, old rivalries and mistrust still simmer between the Vatican and Moscow. Over the past year, theRussian Orthodox Church has accused the Catholic Church of stoking tensions between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church has called the Ukrainian Orthodox Church unpatriotic for maintaining ties with its Russian counterpart during the continued crisis between Kiev and Moscow. Though nearly a thousand years have passed, hostility clearly remains, and no single meeting will completely erase that.

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