Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - Archbishop Paolo Pezzi was appointed Archbishop of the Archdiocese of the Mother of God of Moscow on September 21, 2007 and was conferred the pallium by the Holy Father on the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, this past June 29. Agenzia Fides asked him a few questions on the social and religious situation he is working in and his experience in Russia.
How did you find the situation of the Church and society in Russia, upon your arrival there?
Gift and responsibility always go hand in hand, at least in my life anyways, but I think the same could be said about every situation and every person. A gift goes to waste it is not given the proper response. I refer to talents, a special grace, a capacity to express oneself that God can give through one’s own character. And yet, a gift truly blossoms and its goodness can be perceived only when the person responds to the gift that has been given them. That has been my experience. And thus, with the responsibility I have, I see it as a continuation of Grace in my life. The situation I found – which in part I already knew, but you see it from a different perspective when it is a gift of responsibility from God – regarding the Church, was small in quantity yet significant because of the faith.
What the Catholic community in Russia needs most is to grow in its awareness of the gift of the faith and live it with a missionary spirit, to offer the beautiful gift of an encounter with Christ to the people they come in contact with. This makes the people treat those they meet with great piety and care, without worrying about ‘recruiting.’ It makes us appreciate the existence of the Orthodox Church or other groups present in my diocese, for example the Lutheran community. The social situation that I have observed has certainly shown me a critical factor: the need for Christ that the Russian person has, whether or not he is aware of it himself. This is the greatest need. Everyone needs Christ.
What are the main obstacles and questions that Catholics must face in such a complex country?
What is needed is an awareness of one’s own faith. Among the questions we must face, I would say the most important is that of faith formation, so that they can become men and women of faith who are mature, responsible, capable of responding to the good, and contributing to the common good of the society in which they live; men and women capable of living their faith in the social, economic, and political environments, in the area of relationships. Another issue, although of no less importance, is the contribution we can make in rebuilding and conserving the family unit. I think that a person cannot grow up in a healthy manner, in every sense of the word – humanly, spiritually, psychologically, and physically – without a stable family unit. Otherwise, they will have major difficulties, which will have consequences in their day-to-day relationships, in their human experience: in this sense, we have a great gift to offer.
Thirdly, I think it is of great importance that we keep in mind the need for charitable initiatives, of giving without payment. We run the risk of thinking of charity as something ‘professional,’ something that should simply satisfy needs. However, I think that charity should be a part of daily life, that finds its fullness above all in taking on the needs of others, whether it be the next-door neighbor, the family, a work colleague, or a companion from school or university.
Ecumenism and interreligious dialogue: what role do these play in your pastoral ministry? Is there a common commitment on the part of both Churches in these areas? Do you dialogue?
Yes, we dialogue and this is a positive factor. Whenever there is dialogue, there is always the possibility of getting to know the other, of enrichment, and above all, not to feel like you alone are the exclusive owner of the good, of the truth, of how things should go. Therefore, I am content because even with all the difficulties and through these difficulties, dialogue can persist, mutually of course. In my pastoral ministry, dialogue has played a significant role, mainly because the movement towards unity and thus, in a Christian manner, is a movement towards full communion and not to do so would be like living something without really living it or affirm an abstract principle. In fact, man lives, whether or not he is aware of it, with a tendency towards unity. For the Christian, this means living with the awareness of being one with Christ and therefore, of doing everything in their power to grow closer to Him. If we don’t make Him the priority, we do not live with Him in the first place; we could say that we do not live out Christianity.
What is it that we are trying to achieve? If we look only at the results, it may seem like very little. That is why we should look at the principles. It has already been seen that it is possible to act in a common way in accord with the Christian message and therefore, live it out. For example, we can all live the same passion for mankind to know Christ. We can also carry out activities, meetings, moments of preaching, all in a common manner. There are also aspects of educating the human person that we share: for example, the value of the family and the need to support it, educate it, and transmit the Christian values that give it lasting character. The charitable service aspect also allows us to work together, but we need to remain sincere in our objectives, in what we are trying to achieve and above all, how we achieve it.
The recent visit of Cardinal Kasper, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, to the Russian Federation has been an important landmark. What ideas for action has it left for both Churches? And for your own apostolate?
One aspect that stood out, and I think that it did for the Orthodox environment as well, was to see Cardinal Kasper so concerned for them that he was led to participate in their meetings with young people, with the hierarchy, and to see the Orthodox phenomenon more close-up. I saw this as a call for me to do the same, to continue working like him. I was amazed that although his visit was a personal affair, the Cardinal was able to bring together diverse areas. A second point for working on that I have taken up is that wherever it is possible, we should try to enter into direct contact with people, enter into positive dialogue with them. The Cardinal told me of an interesting dialogue he had with several Orthodox students, during which they asked him very profound questions that showed a sincere interest in understanding the Catholic Church.
A possible meeting of Pope Benedict XVI and Alessio II is truly an much-awaited event, however much is already being done in the area of dialogue. Does this meeting run the risk, perhaps, of becoming ‘simply’ an impressive event?
We are trying to take steps in not making the meeting the media event of the century, but rather a meaningful moment, that it may be truly constructive and lead towards a full communion. The meeting of the Pope with the Patriarch will certainly be a step in this direction. On the other hand, if the encounter is not well prepared, it could make the path more difficult in the end. So we should learn to be patient. When someone loves another, they are willing to wait.
As you see it, would it be effective to start with common aspects, such as the common devotion to Our Blessed Mother that unites Catholics and Orthodox?
In our relationship with the Orthodox, the devotion to the Virgin Mary is a common point and very important. In Russia, we both (although the Catholics more so) have to be careful and not make a certain form or manner of devotion into something that comes into conflict with another. Both in the East and in the West, we have developed a very profound, deeply-rooted, and diverse manner of devotion. These various forms of devotion should meet in their origin. It may seem petty, but for us it is normal and part of our Marian devotion to represent Her with statues or other images.
This is fairly absent from the Orthodox tradition, where this devotion has developed through the veneration of icons. This does not mean to say that statues and icons cannot be used, but it means that my devotion should reach out to the devotion of others and unite with it. This requires an effort to learn the taste and passion for devotions that the other person has, their way of praying and of addressing the Virgin Mary. Someone needs to do this work. It could easily occur that in not wishing to learn this delicacy, something good like addressing the Virgin Mary could turn into something used against another. This is completely mistaken.
Archbishop Pezzi, you are a missionary and you belong to the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Charles Borromeo. What does being missionary in Russia mean for you? Passion for these countries – Russia, Liberia – seems to be something that has accompanied you since your days as a doctoral student. Do you have any special motivation?
The missionary passion is part of the Church’s nature in her entirety and of the Christian as such. Every baptized person is a missionary, and to the degree that he does not live as a missionary, he does not live out his baptism. In this sense, the mission is life’s realization of the gift of Baptism. We could say that the mission is the unfolding of the vocation that God gives to each person. I find it very interesting, the relation between the idea of mission that has come from the Latin tradition – that is, spending one’s life bringing the beauty, truth, justice, and joy of life found in Christ to others – and the more typically Eastern idea that the mission means the transfiguration of one’s own life, that is with holiness, living one’s own vocation. This becomes an attraction in the one who finds it, that remains attracted by the beauty of Christianity, as something that is transfigured in me.
I have been able to assimilate these two aspects of the same path in my life, almost through ‘osmosis.’ They have handed on two me by my teachers, the people I have met and have made Christianity a part of my life, something fascinating and interesting. Thus, there was a point in my life when I returned to Christianity, with this passion: there is the origin of my missionary ‘passion.’ The passion for Russia, however, is almost ‘coincidence.’ I really had never thought about it or read books about Russia specifically. There are some signs in my life that have brought me to this point: for example, the Rublev icon of the Savior, which played an important role in my return to Christianity, or the reading of a certain religious work from the Soviet era, which as a boy had left an impression on me for this manner of living the faith in difficult conditions. They are signs that perhaps may never had had continuity if I had not been asked whether I was willing to go first to Siberia and later to Russia, as they were in need of a priest.
I simply said yes, because in my life I have always said yes; I do not know how to do much else. The most important factor is knowing to whom you respond. When you know to whom you are responding, saying ‘yes’ you can never go wrong. This is what has given me a passion for Russia, for the land, the people, the religious form, the Christianity lived in Orthodoxy, the songs, the music, the literature of this land and this people. (PC) (Agenzia Fides 09/07/2008)
