[Moscou • ENI] C'est le métropolite Kirill de Smolensk et Kaliningrad qui a été élu à la tête du Patriarcat de Moscou de l'Eglise orthodoxe russe, par une victoire écrasante. Le métropolite Kirill occupait déjà par intérim la fonction laissée vacante par le patriarche Alexis II, décédé en décembre 2008.

Les autorités de l'Eglise ont déclaré après l'élection que Kirill, 62 ans, avait raflé 508 voix lors d'un vote à bulletin secret du conseil de l'Eglise locale organisé à Moscou le 27 janvier, tandis que son adversaire, Clément de Kaluga et Borovsk n'avait obtenu que 169 voix. A l'élection participaient plus de 702 membres du clergé, moines et laïcs orthodoxes de 64 pays.

"J'accepte et remercie le conseil de l'Eglise locale de m'avoir élu patriarche de Moscou et de toute la Russie", a déclaré Kirill après l'annonce des résultats de l'élection et avant de célébrer une cérémonie religieuse.

Son élection a été saluée par les responsables d'organisations oecuméniques à Genève.

Le secrétaire général du Conseil oecuménique des Eglises, le pasteur Samuel Kobia, a déclaré dans un communiqué du 28 janvier : "Nous saluons le responsable d'Eglise qui a joué un rôle important en matière de dialogue interreligieux et de relations internationales et nous prions pour que le patriarche de l'Eglise orthodoxe russe continue à parler au monde ouvertement et courageusement, franchement et avec compassion."

Le secrétaire général de la Conférence des Eglises européennes, l'archidiacre Colin Williams (KEK), espère que l'élection de Kirill permettra un retour de l'Eglise russe au sein de la KEK, après qu'elle en eut suspendu sa participation en 2008.

Cette rupture a pour cause la décision de l'Eglise orthodoxe d'Estonie de passer sous l'autorité du Patriarcat oecuménique de Constantinople. La décision avait entraîné une rupture provisoire de la communion entre Alexis II et le Patriarche oecuménique Bartholomée Ier.

L'Eglise orthodoxe russe a annoncé en octobre 2008 son retrait de la KEK, en raison d'un différend portant sur l'admission de l'Eglise orthodoxe estonienne liée au Patriarcat oecuménique, alors que l'organisation n'avait jamais accepté d'accueillir l'Eglise orthodoxe estonienne liée au Patriarcat de Moscou.

"A la Conférence des Eglises européennes, nous avons eu ces dernières années de bonnes raisons d'être reconnaissants envers votre propre engagement sur la route de l'oecuménisme", a déclaré l'archidiacre Williams. "Nous avons hâte de poursuivre notre voyage sur cette route avec vous. Nous sommes disposés à travailler avec vous afin de garantir une participation totale de l'Eglises orthodoxe russe dans la vie de la KEK, surtout avant et pendant la 13e Assemblée de la KEK à Lyon en juillet."

Kirill Ier sera installé le 2 février en tant que successeur du patriarche d'Alexis II, qui était à la tête de l'Eglise depuis 1990 et qui est décédé le 5 décembre. Il fut l'artisan du renouveau de l'Eglise après la chute du communisme et plusieurs décennies d'athéisme institutionnalisé pendant la période soviétique.

Fils de prêtre, Kirill est né à Leningrad, aujourd'hui Saint-Pétersbourg. Il a dirigé pendant près de vingt ans le Département des relations extérieures de la plus grande Eglise orthodoxe au monde.

De nombreux observateurs pensent que les relations de Kirill avec les autorités russes seront aussi cruciales que ses relations avec les autres Eglises, qu'il a par le passé favorisées. Sa relation avec l'Eglise catholique romaine revêtira également une importance particulière. Kirill avait rencontré le pape Benoît XVI en décembre 2007.

Pope on Shoah: Never again may violence humiliate the dignity of man!

[Radio Vaticano • January 28, 2009 • excerpted] In his weekly audience Pope Benedict categorically condemned all attempts to deny the Holocaust and explained the reasons for the lifting of the excommunication of four bishops from the fraternity of St. Pius X.

Speaking in Italian following his catechesis on St. Paul, Pope Benedict immediately addressed an issue that has been dominating international media this week: The Holy See’s decision to lift the excommunication of four bishops from the Fraternity of St. Pius X.

“In the homily I pronounced at the outset of my Pontificate” began the Pope”, “I affirmed that the call to unity is the “explicit” duty of a Pastor”. Moreover, he added, it is the a qualifying aspect of the ministry of St. Peter’s Successor. Pope Benedict said that he arrived at his decision to lift the excommunication of the four prelates, because they had made known to him on repeated occasions “the suffering caused them by their situation”. “I decided to carry out this act out of paternal mercy” he said, adding that he hopes his gesture will lead to their commitment “to realise full communion with the Church, by their fidelity to and full recognition of the Magisterium and authority of the Pope and the Second Vatican Council”.

Pope Benedict’s thoughts then turned to the Shoah, the memorial of which was celebrated this week. He said “the memories and images of my many visits to Auschwitz come back to me in these days, a death camp in which blind racial and religious hatred led to the ferocious extermination of millions of Jews and other innocent victims”.

Then Pope Benedict firmly said “While I renew my affection for and complete solidarity with our Brothers of the First Alliance, I urge that the memory of the Shoah lead humanity to reflect on the unforeseeable power of evil when it conquers the Human Heart. May the Shoah be a warning to all against oblivion, against denial or revisionism, because violence committed against any one single human being is violence against all humanity. No man is an island, a well known poet once wrote. The Shoah teaches both the new and older generations, that only the demanding journey of listening and dialogue, of love and forgiveness can lead the world’s peoples, cultures and religions towards the desired goal of brotherhood and peace in truth. Never again may violence humiliate the dignity of man!”.

• Listen to this Radio Vaticano news report in Real Audio

Pope says no one can deny Holocaust, expresses solidarity with Jews

[Luigi Sandri • Rome • ENI • January 28, 2009] Pope Benedict XVI says he has "full and unquestionable solidarity" with Jewish people and he has warned against any form of Holocaust denial. The Pope's statement comes after outrage at his recent reinstatement of an excommunicated bishop, who has said the genocide of Jews in gas chambers never took place.

The German-born pontiff was speaking at his weekly audience on 28 January following an international outcry about British-born Richard Williamson, who was among four bishops who had been excommunicated for opposing reforms in the Roman Catholic Church 20 years earlier.

"While I renew with affection the expression of my full and unquestionable solidarity with our [Jewish] brothers, I hope the memory of the Shoah [Hebrew for Holocaust] will induce humanity to reflect on the unpredictable power of hate when it conquers the heart of man."

In an interview conducted in November and broadcast by Swedish television a week ago, Williamson had said: "I believe there were no gas chambers" and he had said that that no more than 300 000 Jews perished under the Nazis. "The historical evidence is hugely against six million Jews having been deliberately gassed in gas chambers as a deliberate policy by Adolf Hitler," Williamson had said.

The Pope said that the traditionalist movement to which the four bishops belonged would need to be loyal to the papacy and the teachings of the 1962 to 1965 Second Vatican Council, which the four had rejected along with others known as Lefebvrists after their leader, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre of France.

At the end of his general audience, Benedict said: "I remember my visit to Auschwitz, one of the concentration camps in which took place the vicious extermination of millions of Jews, innocent victims of blind racial and religious hate." He added, "Nobody can deny the Shoah."

Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See press office, commented: "The words of the Pope on Shoah should be more than sufficient to answer to the expectations of those who express doubts on the positions of the pope and of the Catholic Church on this matter".

Williamson, who is aged 68, was among four bishops excommunicated because Lefebvre, founder of the Society of Pius X that opposed the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, had consecrated them as bishops.

"The statements of Monsignor Williamson do not reflect in any way the position of our society," Bernard Fellay, who now heads the Society of Pius X, wrote in a letter to the Pope that was distributed to journalists at the Vatican.

Jewish leaders had said the reinstatement of Williamson threatened decades of interfaith dialogue and that it could jeopardise a planned trip to the Holy Land by Pope Benedict later this year.

[Moscow • January 27 • Interfax] The delegates to the Church Council meeting under way in Moscow have elected Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad the 16th Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.

Metropolitan Kirill garnered 508 (72%) out of the 702 votes during the election on Tuesday. To be elected Patriarch, a candidate had to be supported by more than half of the delegates.

Another 169 votes (24%) went to Metropolitan Kliment of Kaluga and Borovsk.

Metropolitan Filaret of Minsk and Slutsk, who was also nominated for Patriarch by the Bishops' Council several days ago, had withdrawn from the elections in favor of Metropolitan Kirill about two hours before the voting.

Out of the 702 ballots given out to the delegates for voting, 700 were retrieved from the ballot box, and 677 of them were found valid and the other 23 invalid.

Metropolitan Isidor of Yekaterinodar and Kuban, the head of the tabulation board, proclaimed the result of the voting from the ambo of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.

The belfry of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior announced the election of the 16th patriarch of Moscow and All Russia by a peal of bells. The Czars' Bell started tolling first, and then all the other bells played a historic melody dating back to the 17th century. The Reut, one of the oldest bells in the Kremlin, also started chiming immediately after the voting result was announced.

[Moscow • ENI] Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad has been elected as the new head of the Moscow Patriarchate in the Orthodox Church after serving a period as interim leader and following an election in which he got an overwhelming majority of votes.

Church officials said after the election on 27 January that the 62-year-old Kirill garnered 508 votes in a secret ballot of the Local Church Council in Moscow while his challenger Metropolitan Kliment of Kaluga and Borovsk got 169 votes. The election involved more than 702 Russian Orthodox clergymen, monks and laymen from 64 countries.

"I accept and thank the Local Church Council for my election as Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia," Kirill said after the election results were announced and before leading the congregation in a church service.

Kirill will be installed on 2 February as the successor to Moscow Patriarch Alexei II, who had headed the church from 1990 and died on 5 December after leading a revival of the church in a post-Soviet era revival of Orthodoxy after decades of atheism being at the fore under communism.

The son of a priest, Kirill was born in Leningrad which reverted to its old name St. Petersburg after the end of the Soviet Union and he had headed the external relations department of the world's largest Orthodox church for almost 20 years.

Many observers believe Kirill’s relationship with the Russian State will be as crucial as his relations with other churches, which he has in the past favoured and also his relationship with the Roman Catholic Church following a meeting he had with Pope Benedict XVI in December 2007.

Russian Orthodox Church elects new patriarch with long-standing ecumenical commitment

[WCC News • January 28, 2009] In a letter congratulating Metropolitan Kyrill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad on his election as the new patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia expressed the appreciation of the worlwide ecumenical fellowship for this "outstanding Orthodox theologian, leader and hierarch".

"We give thanks for your friendship and companionship in the area of inter-Christian relations and we pray that your commitment to the dialogue, deep knowledge of the present ecclesial and ecumenical developments and challenges, and critical, yet constructive attitude will strengthen the relationships between the divided churches and their common witness within a world in search of values," Kobia wrote.

"We recognize the church leader who has played an important role in the realm of inter-religious dialogue and international relations and we pray that the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church will continue to speak to the world openly and courageously, frankly and caringly, promoting and defending the human person, every human person, created in the image and likeness of God", the letter dated 28 January continues.

The 62-year-old Kyrill was elected with an overwhelming majority of votes at a 27 January meeting of the church's local council, which is made up of more than 700 priests, monks and laypeople representing each diocese and foreign mission of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Kyrill had headed the external relations department of the world's largest Orthodox church for almost 20 years. He also served as permanent representative of the Moscow Patriarchate to the WCC in the 1970s and as member of the WCC Executive and Central Committees – the Council's governing bodies in the years between its assemblies – from 1975 to 1998.

Kobia also announced he will be attending the 2 February ceremony during which Kyrill will be installed as the successor to Moscow Patriarch Alexy II, who had headed the church from 1990 until his death on 5 December 2008.

• Full text of the letter: http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=6574
• Russian Orthodox Church: http://www.mospat.ru

[Vatican City • John Thavis • CNS] Pope Benedict XVI has lifted the excommunication of four bishops ordained against papal orders in 1988 by the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. The move was considered a major concession to the archbishop's traditionalist followers.

The Vatican said the decree removing the excommunication, signed Jan. 21 and made public three days later, marked an important step toward full communion with the Society of St. Pius X, founded by Archbishop Lefebvre in 1970.

It said some questions remain unresolved with the society, including its future status and that of its priests, and that these issues would be the subject of further talks.

"The Holy Father was motivated in this decision by the hope that complete reconciliation and full communion may be reached as soon as possible," a Vatican statement said.

The head of the society, Bishop Bernard Fellay, had requested the annulment of the excommunication in a letter Dec. 15. Bishop Fellay wrote that he and the three other bishops illicitly ordained in 1988 were determined to remain Catholic, and accepted the teachings of Pope Benedict "with filial spirit."

The Vatican said the pope had responded positively to the request in order to promote "the unity in charity of the universal church and succeed in removing the scandal of division."

The decree removing the excommunications, issued by the Congregation for Bishops, underlined the hope that this step would be followed by full communion, and that all members of the Society of St. Pius X would demonstrate "true fidelity and true acknowledgment of the Magisterium and the authority of the pope."

The move came after one of the illicitly ordained bishops, British-born Bishop Richard Williamson, provoked Jewish protests with assertions that the Holocaust was exaggerated and that no Jews died in Nazi gas chambers. He spoke in a TV interview recorded last November but aired in mid-January.

The Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, said emphatically that the Vatican did not share Bishop Williamson's views, but that it was a completely separate issue from the lifting of the excommunication.

"Saying a person is not excommunicated is not the same as saying one shares all his ideas or statements," Father Lombardi said.

The removal of the excommunication was a key condition of the Society of St. Pius X in its on-again, off-again talks with the Vatican over reconciliation. The pope in 2007 granted another of the society's requests, widening the possibility for use of the Tridentine rite, the form of Mass used before the Second Vatican Council.

Archbishop Lefebvre rejected several important teachings of the Second Vatican Council, including those related to religious liberty, ecumenism and liturgy. The Vatican statements did not mention the council's teachings, and Father Lombardi had no comment on whether the society was asked to adhere to them.

The Vatican action came the day before the 50th anniversary of Pope John XXIII's announcement of the Second Vatican Council. Father Lombardi said it would be wrong to see the lifting of the excommunication as a rejection of Vatican II.

"On the contrary, I think it is a beautiful thing that the council is no longer considered an element of division, but as an element in which every member of the church can meet," he said.

In addition to Bishops Fellay and Williamson, the decree removed the excommunication for French Bishop Bernard Tissier de Mallerais and Argentine Bishop Alphonso de Galarreta. The Vatican said in 1988 that Archbishop Lefebvre and the bishops he ordained had incurred automatic excommunication for defying papal orders against the ordination.

Benedict’s high risk strategy

[Robert Mickens • January 31, 2009 • The Tablet] The Pope has described it as an act of paternal mercy. But while the lifting of the excommunication of rebel Lefebvrist bishops has been praised by arch-traditionalists, it has shocked many Catholics and members of other faiths, especially Jews. Our Rome writer tracks the reasons for the turnaround and its consequences.

• Read the complete article in The Tablet.

[Mexico City • ACNS 4561] The Anglican-Methodist International Commission for Unity in Mission held its first meeting in the Centro Anglicano de la Diócesis de México in Mexico City, as guests of the Anglican Consultative Council. The Commission was co-chaired by the Right Revd Harold Miller, the Bishop of Down and Dromore (Church of Ireland), for the Anglican Communion, and the Revd Professor Robert Gribben (Uniting Church in Australia), Chairman of the Standing Committee on Ecumenics and Dialogue, on behalf of the World Methodist Council.

The Commission has been given a mandate by its sponsoring bodies as set out in the London Document, the Report of the Anglican-Methodist International Consultation, which took place in London, UK, in November 2007. Building on our common confession of the apostolic faith and our participation in God's mission, the purpose of the Commission is to advance the full visible communion of Anglicans and Methodists at every level as a contribution to the full visible unity of the Church of Christ. It has been asked to monitor and resource relations between Anglicans and Methodists, and to propose ways to achieve this goal.

The Commission began its work by reviewing the reports and agreements produced by Anglican and Methodist dialogues both at the international and the regional levels. It also identified the main strands of work which it wishes to address at future meetings. The meeting took place in the context of daily prayer, worship, and the celebration of Holy Communion in both traditions. The members of the Commission left the meeting with enthusiasm about the work to be done, and the possibility of the reconciliation of our two traditions.

The Commission is grateful for the warm welcome given to it by the Iglesia Anglicana de Mexico, by the Most Revd Carlos Touché-Porter, the Anglican Archbishop of Mexico, and the staff of the Diocese of Mexico and the Anglican Centre. The Commission were also pleased to receive a joint visit from Archbishop Carlos, the local Methodist bishop, Bishop Moisés Valderrama Gomez, and the principals of their respective seminaries, the Very Revd Pablo Ramos and the Revd Andrés Hernández. The Commission also enjoyed the hospitality of Christ Church, Mexico City, where they worshipped on Sunday, 11th January.

The Commission will meet next in February 2010 in the United Kingdom.

The members of the Commission are:

Anglicans

The Rt Revd Harold Miller (Church of Ireland), Co-Chair
Canon Paul Avis (Church of England)
The Rt Revd Franklin Brookhart (The Episcopal Church, USA)
The Venerable Flavio Irala (Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil) (not present at this meeting)
Canon Lulama Mtanjiswa Ntshingwa (Anglican Church of Southern Africa)
The Rt Revd Dr. Surya Prakash (Church of South India)
Canon Gregory K Cameron, Anglican Communion Office, Co-Secretary

Methodists

The Revd Professor Robert Gribben (Uniting Church in Australia), Co-Chair
Dr Elizabeth Amoah (Methodist Church Ghana) (not present at this meeting)
Bishop Thomas L Hoyt Jr (Christian Methodist Episcopal Church) (not present at this meeting)
The Revd Dr Lorna Khoo (Methodist Church in Singapore) (not present at this meeting)
The Revd Gareth Powell (Methodist Church of Great Britain)
The Revd Dr George Freeman, World Methodist Council, Co-Secretary
Methodist Consultants (for this meeting only)
The Revd Dr Douglas Mills (United Methodist Church)
The Revd Peter Sulston (Methodist Church of Great Britain)

Observer

Bishop Walter Jagucki (Lutheran Church in Great Britain) on behalf of the Lutheran World Federation.