© 2005-2026 BISERICI.org
© 2005-2026 BISERICI.org
Timp stanga: 0.03s...
Letter #10, 2024, Friday, May 10: Nikodim[2024-05-10][Engleză]Today is the day after the Feast of the Ascension, celebrated yesterday, Thursday, May 9.It is also the day after the day that Russia celebrates as the end of World War II May 9, celebrated in Russia as Victory Day. (Note: Germanys armed forces surrendered unconditionally to the Allies on May 7, 1945. The surrender went into effect the next day, May 8, 1945. World War II officially ended in most parts of Europe on May 8 (V-E Day). But because of the time difference, Soviet forces announced their Victory Day on May 9, 1945, and have celebrated it, both in the USSR time, and now in Russia, on May 9.) Today is also three days after the inauguration in Moscow on May 7 of President Vladimir Putin, 71, for the 5th time as the president of Russia. (link). (Putin is scheduled to serve a 6-year term, and theoretically could serve a second 6-year term, up until 2036, when he will be 83.) Thus, these are the very first days of Putins new term of office. And, there are now reports of imminent new Russian offensives, toward Kharkiv (link) and Odessa (link), the second and third largest cities in Ukraine (after Kiev, the capital), following a winter of relatively little movement in the lines marking the areas under Ukrainian and Russian control in eastern Ukraine. One of Putins closest allies, Ramzan Kadyrov, 47, father of 12 children (two adopted), a famed military leader who with his personal militia, the Kadyrovites, fought for the independence of Chechen after the fall of the Soviet Union, then defected to the Russian side in the Second Chechen War in 1999 (link). After this, Kadyrov went on to become the head of the Chechen Republic, and he has remained so for almost 20 years. This ally of Putin gave an interview in Moscow three days ago at the time of Putins inauguration. This month we need to take Kharkiv and Odessa, Kadyrov said. He continued: We must take the entire territory of Ukraine. (Here is a link to that interview. And here is a link to another helpful article which puts the upcoming Russian plans into greater perspective.) This means that the Ukraine war may soon begin to heat up again. (In fact, I was advised today that the new Russian surge toward Kharkiv has already started.) This is a terrible tragedy, since attempts to take these cities, Kharkiv and Odessa, will inevitably lead to much destruction and death, as occurred in Mariupol (link), then the 10th largest city on Ukraine, when it was captured by the Russians two years ago. This is a particular tragedy because there seemed to be an certain opportunity in recent month to seek a negotiated peace, had there been any will to begin such a search something repeatedly, passionately called for, rightly, by Pope Francis. Russia had sent signals that it wished to enter into negotiations, but these signals were either not perceived or not listened to by anyone in the West. No talks were started. And now the opportunity to begin talks may have been lost. So, from a religious perspective, a certain moment of possible grace may have just passed a moment that the entire world missed Now the clash of arms seems likely to re-commence with new intensity, and with much loss of life. *** As I was meditating on these matters, wondering about how the relations between Russia and the West deteriorated to this point of direct war, and reading a number of articles on the matter, I came across a precious interview, a magnificent interview, I might say, that my Italian colleague and friend, Stefania Falasca, conducted 18 years ago, in 2006, with the late Jesuit father Michael Arranz who was one of the leading experts in the Vatican on Catholic-Orthodox relations, and on the life of the Church under the Soviet communists. (After she interviewed Arranz, I also went to see and talk to him, and personally confirm what he had said in this interview.) Falascas interview, at this link, is from the June-July 2006 issue of 30 Giorni (30 Days). It is so compelling, and so important for the history of Russian-Western and Russian-Vatican relations, that I thought it necessary to bring attention to it once again, now, under these present circumstances of looming war between Russia and NATO, especially because the interview ends with words very similar to the words I wrote above about the missed opportunity of this past winter. The interview speaks of the unexpected death of one of Russias leading Churchmen, the 49-year-old Metropolitan Nikodim of Leningrad in the USSR, now again called St. Petersburg (link), on the morning of September 5, 1978, inside Vatican City(!). Nikodim the spiritual father of the present Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Kirill strongly favored closer relations with the Roman Catholic Church. He had even expressed the hope that the Russian Orthodox and the Roman Catholics might actually reunite before the year 2000 to a young Kirill, not long before he died. So Nikodim was a man with a considerable openness toward the Catholic Church, and thus toward the West. But, while meeting with the newly-elected Pope John Paul I, Nikodim, apparently suffering a massive heart attack, collapsed into the arms of the newly-elected Pope, spoke some words to him, then died. He died in the arms of the new Pope and the new Pope himself then died just 23 days later. Thus, with Nikodims death, the possibility of closer relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church came to an abrupt end. The interview ends: It was a moment of grace that passed that the Church missed. RM Subscribe to Inside the Vatican *** Here is the interview with the late Fr. Miguel Arranz, S.J. John Paul I I had never heard such fine things By Stefania Falasca 30 Days, June-July 2006 On 5 September 1978, during a meeting with Pope Luciani, Nikodim, the Metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church died suddenly. Acting as a Russian interpreter for the Pope was the Jesuit Miguel Arranz. Who remembers that tragic day in this interview Interview with Miguel Arranz by Stefania Falasca John Paul I with Metropolitan Nikodim and Cardinal Willebrands, 5 September 1978 On the morning of 5 September 28 years ago the Metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church, Nikodim of Petersburg, died suddenly in the arms of Pope Albino Luciani. He was only 49 years old. In him died one of the most brilliant personalities in Orthodoxy but above all one of the most significant figures in the history of ecumenism. His was an ecumenic sensibility that had led him to intensify contacts with the Catholic Church and to cross the threshold of the Vatican several times to meet the Roman Pontiff in the post-Council period of the sixties and seventies, when the paths of ecumenism and politics often crossed. Accompanying Metropolitan Nikodim at those meetings and acting as Russian interpreter for the Pope was the Spanish Jesuit Miguel Arranz, then vice-rector of the Russicum, whom Nikodim had not been slow to call to Russia to give courses in theology at the Theological Academy of Saint Petersburg. It is precisely that post-Council period that, in the memories of the now retired veteran of ecumenism, appears to Father Arranz today as an unkept promise: Without proclamations, the role of the successor of Peter was then recognized in fact by the bishops of the East. Their trips to Rome were real visits ad limina Petri. The regimes were urging them and they came to the Pope with the faith of sons, sons of a sister Church. Perhaps the bond of the successor of Peter with the Christians of those lands would have found a way of asserting itself. It may all have been a delusion, but the return to unity seemed so easy at certain moments . In his personal gallery of lost chances, of omens, of what might have been and was not, Arranz also puts the words that Nikodim spoke to John Paul I, and that he himself translated for the Pope, on that dramatic morning of 5 September 1978. Luciani himself mentioned that conversation in public. Two days ago, the Pope said, Metropolitan Nikodim of Petersburg died in my arms. I was answering his address. I assure you that in my life I have never heard such fine words for the Church as those spoken by him. I cannot repeat them, it remains a secret. A secret that Arranz as interpreter knows. With him, for the first time, we plunge back into the chronicle of those days and of that tragic morning. Father Arranz, did you have a chance to meet Metropolitan Nikodim in Rome immediately after the death of Paul VI? MIGUEL ARRANZ: Yes. Nikodim had come to Rome for the funeral of Paul VI. And afterwards he celebrated in St Peters Basilica a funeral office attended by many representatives of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. I told him that the Father General of the Jesuits, Father Arrupe, would like to offer him hospitality at Villa Cavalletti in Frascati, where he would be his personal guest. So Nikodim stayed at Villa Cavalletti for the whole month of August up to the election of the new pontiff. So the Metropolitan was present at the moment of Lucianis election ARRANZ: No. He was not present at that moment. He came to Rome the day following, 27 August, and I accompanied him to the first Sunday address, preceding the Angelus, by the new Pope. What do you remember of the event? ARRANZ: I remember a small episode. We were moving toward St Peters Square at the moment when the cars of the Conclave cardinals who had spent the night in the Vatican were coming down Via della Conciliazione, and at a certain point one of the cars stopped right in front of us. It was the car of Cardinal Willebrands, then president of the Secretariat for Christian Unity. Willebrands got out of the car and began exclaiming to Metropolitan Nikodim: It was the Holy Spirit! The Holy Spirit! Just imagine a rational man, ice-cool as Cardinal Willebrands, gets out of a car exclaiming in that way! Nikodim was stunned He looked at me with questioning air as if to say: Well! We went on and arrived in St Peters Square and pushed our way through almost under the balcony. When Pope Luciani appeared at the window, I began to translate what he was saying to Nikodim. Metropolitan Nikodim with Father Miguel Arranz in Leningrad in 1971 And what were the Metropolitans first comments? ARRANZ: When Pope Luciani began to say: Yesterday morning I went to vote I never would have imagined never, I saw Nikodim was surprised, very surprised by an idiom decidedly unusual for a pope. I also had some difficulty in translating, in rendering those expressions into Russian, and Nikodim was all ears and went on repeating and asking: What, what?, and at each phrase again: What, what? In the two days that followed he decided to go to Turin to venerate the Holy Shroud. When he returned he asked me to accompany him to visit [Agostino] Casaroli. Why did he want to meet him? ARRANZ: To ask for an audience with the new Pontiff. Monsignor Agostino Casaroli, at that time, was president of the Commission for Russia. But an audience for the Eastern delegations was already planned for 5 September ARRANZ: Yes. But according to protocol that was one of the ordinary visits to pay respects and take farewell that each delegation must offer to the new Pontiff after his taking of the throne. Private conversations with the delegations were not planned for that occasion. Metropolitan Nikodim wanted instead to speak with the Pope in confidential fashion. He was asking for an audience outside of protocol, taking advantage of the meeting with the delegations. And he insisted a lot with Casaroli to get the chance. Did he give reasons for that? ARRANZ: He told Casaroli that the need was urgent. And was the possibility immediately granted him? ARRANZ: Nikodim received confirmation that he would be allowed to speak with the Pope the day after Luciani took the throne, Monday 4 September. So on 4 September Nikodim moved to the Russicum College and stayed the night there, since the following morning he was to see the Pope ARRANZ: Exactly. I remember that in the afternoon he went to see Cardinal Slipyi. He then retired early to his room knowing that an intense and important day was awaiting him. Did you see him on the day of the audience ARRANZ: He planned to leave the Russicum for the papal audience at 8:20. However, when I arrived at the College in the early morning, I found Nikodim very upset. He told me he hadnt slept. It had been hot and stuffy in the house hed felt himself drowning. His secretary, Archimandrite Lev, had measured his blood pressure at seven oclock. He had immediately taken nitro-glycerine since he had problems with his heart. Furthermore the car that had been lent him to go to the Vatican had been stolen during the night. That fact had shaken him. I tried to relax him a little. Leaving the Russicum he said: Father Miguel, when a day begins very badly it finishes well In fact at 11 oclock he was no longer with us. So from the Russicum you went straight to the Vatican ARRANZ: Not straight. From the Russicum we went to the House of the Clergy [Casa del Clero], where the ecclesiastical delegations going to the papal audience were to gather. Nikodim had difficulty getting out of the car. Sursa: www.InsideTheVatican.com Contor Accesări: 207, Ultimul acces: 2026-07-30 05:33:14
|
Timp total: 0.03s...
[]:1
