Veneration, Handover Set
For Prized Russian Icon
Rome, Aug. 24 (CWNews.com)
The icon of Our Lady of Kazan will be exposed
for public veneration in St. Peter's basilica on August 26, before it is taken
to Moscow to be given to Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexei II on August 28.
On Wednesday, August 25, Pope John Paul II
will perform a public ceremony in the Paul VI auditorium to venerate the famous
icon. At this liturgical ceremony-- which will take the place of his regular
weekly audience-- the Pope will kiss the icon, following the Orthodox
tradition, while Russian choirs will chant music written for the annual feast
at which the Russian Orthodox Church celebrates the apparition of the icon in
the city of Kazan. (That feast is celebrated in Russia on July 8.) The Holy
Father will also deliver a homily on the icon.
After the public veneration of the icon, the
image will be given by the Pope to Cardinal Walter Kasper, the president of the
Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, who will head the Vatican delegation
traveling to Moscow to restore the icon to Orthodox ownership. That delegation
will also include, among others, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick
of Washington, DC; Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls;
and Andrea Riccardi, the founder of the St. Egidio community. Upon reaching Russia they will be joined
by Moscow's Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz
and by Archbishop Antonio Mennini, the apostolic
nuncio there.
The icon will be handed over the Patriarch
Alexei on August 28, the feast of the Dormition on
the Orthodox calendar. Russia's President Vladimir Putin will be present at the
ceremony.
The importance of this ceremony has been
clouded by the public statements in which the Russian patriarch charged that the
icon in question is not the original image of Our Lady of Kazan, which is
believed to have miraculous properties. But a team of Vatican experts and
Russian scholars, after studying the image in 2003, concluded that this icon
has been the object of long and devout veneration.
At his public audience on August 22, Pope
John Paul remarked that he felt a particularly strong attachment to the icon,
which has been kept in the papal apartment since 1991. The Pontiff announced on
July 10 that he would restore the image to the Russian Orthodox Church, which
has a long tradition of devotion to Our Lady of Kazan.
Vatican sources indicate that the Pope made
his decision to return the icon shortly after Cardinal Kasper returned from a
visit to Moscow in February of this year. But he did not announce that decision
until after a visit to Rome by the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I-- a visit
that marked a step forward in relations between the Holy See and the Orthodox
world. The Pope's gesture is clearly intended to help improve relations with
the Moscow Patriarchate, which has been harshly critical of the Vatican for
several years.
Russian prelate thanks Pope for returning icon Moscow, Aug. 31 (CWNews.com) -
Patriarch Alexei II has issued a formal statement thanking Pope John Paul II (bio - news) for
returning the icon of Our Lady of Kazan to the Russian Orthodox Church.
The Patriarch's
statement, released by the Vatican press office on August 31, says that the
restoration of the prized icon is an act of "justice" as well as a
clear gesture of good will on the part of the Vatican.
Saturday, August 28, 2004 Posted: 1426
GMT (2226 HKT)
MOSCOW,
Russia (CNN) -- A Vatican delegation has returned a centuries-old Russian
Orthodox icon to Russia's Orthodox patriarch in a special ceremony.
The Icon of Our Lady of Kazan,
which has spent the last decade in Pope John Paul II's private apartment, was
presented to Russian Patriarch Alexy II. The handover
symbolizes closer relations between two major strands of Christianity --
Catholicism and Orthodoxy. But early reactions from the Orthodox suggested that
the return of the icon had not resolved outstanding disputes between Roman
Catholics and the Russian Orthodox Church.
In recent months, relations
between the two Christian bodies have been clouded by Orthodox complaints that
Catholics are trying to attract converts in Russia and are harassing the
Orthodox in western Ukraine where Catholics are a majority. Catholics deny both
claims.
The
12-by-10 inch icon handed over Saturday was once believed to be the original
1579 image of the Madonna of Kazan, believed by Russian Orthodox to have
miracle-working powers. Later analysis, however, showed it to be a late
17th-early 18th century copy.
In
Orthodox tradition, copies of famous icons often go on to be revered themselves. The pope said Wednesday that the icon
had "watched over his daily service to the church" since it was given
to him by an American Catholic group in 1993. He had hoped to bring the icon to
Russia himself. Orthodox officials, however, have insisted their disputes must
first be resolved.
Again
Saturday, Alexy II, head of the Russian Orthodox
Church, told reporters that "the conditions do not yet exist" for a
meeting with the pope.
Instead
the icon was returned by German Cardinal Walter Kasper, a senior Vatican
official, during a service at a Moscow cathedral. American Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, D.C., was also part of the Vatican
delegation.
John
Paul has sought better relations with the 200-million member Russian Orthodox
Church throughout his 25-year pontificate, in part because he believes the
Orthodox are natural allies in struggles to resist both Western secularism and
the challenge of Islam.
In
receiving the icon, the 75-year-old Alexy II thanked
the pope but also issued a blunt call for more substantive moves. "I hope
this demonstrates a desire on the part of the Vatican to seriously return to an
attitude of respect with regard to our church," he said.
Vatican
spokesperson Joaquin Navarro-Valls predicted that the
Russian people would respond positively even if Orthodox officials do not.
"This was a gesture of the pope that arrived at the heart of the
people," he said. "The consciousness of difficulties is strong, but
this went around and over it." John
L. Allen Jr., correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter, contributed to
this report