Vatican Appointed a Kinder Pastor to Russia

(left)The ceremony of laying hands on Rev Paolo Pezzi, rector of St. Petersburg Mary – The Queen of Apostles Seminary. A new chief of Russia’s Catholics, Paolo Pezzi, took office after the ceremony in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Moscow Saturday.

(above left)Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewics, left, attends the ceremony of laying hands on Rev Paolo Pezzi, right, in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Moscow Saturday.

(above right)Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewics, left, lays hands on Rev Paolo Pezzi, center, in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Moscow Saturday.

A new chief of Russia’s Catholics, Paolo Pezzi, took office after the Saturday ceremony in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. The analysts say the Moscow Patriarchy lobbied him to replace Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz and the change of the head of the Catholic Church in European Russia will warm Russia’s-Vatican relations to such extent, that the first ever meeting of All-Russia’s Patriarch and the Pope could be witnessed in the near future.

It was Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewics that conducted the service at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, as a result of which he was succeeded by Paolo Pezzi. Pope Benedict XVI transferred Kondrusiewics to Belarus in September, appointing Rev Paolo Pezzi, 47, rector of St. Petersburg Mary – The Queen of Apostles Seminary, instead of him. As Kondrusiewics was thought at odds with the Orthodox Church in Russia, the general hope is that his replacement will bring momentum to relations of Vatican and Russia’s Orthodox Church.

“By this transfer, Vatican actually makes Russian Orthodox Church understand that it is high time to improve the relations,” said Alexander Dugin, who is the church analyst. “In substance, the Pope made concession, as Russian Orthodox Church had been long seeking Kondrusiewics’ replacement from Vatican.”

According to Dugin, the Moscow Patriarchy associated Kondrusiewics with the time of Joan Paul II, when the relations of two churches had been particularly tense. The target that was set to Pezzi is rather complicated, the analyst went on, he is expected to prove “that the Catholic Church can be a friend.” “I think the historical meeting of Patriarch and Pope will eventually take place,” Dugin forecasted.

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