Relations strained

Moscow
The Russian Orthodox Church has presented what it describes as evidence supporting its long-standing charge of Roman Catholic proselytising in Russia. The Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church sent letters to the Vatican setting out its definition of proselytising and listing cases of what it viewed as Catholic poaching of its flock. The letters were a response to recent Catholic claims that attempts are being made to curb Catholic church activities in Russia. Already-strained relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Vatican plunged to a new low last February after Pope John Paul II created four Roman Catholic dioceses in Russia united in an “ecclesiastical province” headed by an archbishop in Moscow.