How would this revitalized Orthodox church benefit from a visit by the bishop of Rome? How could the patriarch, even in his most splendid vestments, gem-encrusted crown and pectoral icons, outshine the Roman visitor in his familiar white cassock? No doubt Russians of all or no religious affiliations would turn out in the thousands, if only out of curiosity, to see the man who helped bring down the ideology that had enslaved them. In fact, how many Catholics would suddenly surface for a papal Mass in Gorky Park? How many cheering young people would fill the soccer stadium to hear a pope speak fluent Russian? These were risks the shrewd Alexei did not want to take. Even greeting the pope at the airport could have meant a loss of prestige. Better that John Paul II stay in Italy than that he disturb the new religious success of “Holy Mother Russia.” Indeed, Orthodox protocol would not even allow the two men to say a common prayer!
But there is another reason why this pope, his health aside, will not visit Moscow. He is Polish. There is a long and unhappy history of Poles in Russia. The Russians believe that their “Time of Troubles” started when a young man appeared at the castle of a Polish nobleman claiming to be the Czarevich Dmitry, the heir to the throne of Russia. The papal nuncio and Polish Jesuits were very supportive since the young pretender, who converted to Catholicism, agreed to help establish Catholic schools and churches and convert Russians to the One True Church of Rome.
An army was formed and without great resistance made its way to Moscow. The Polish king, Sigismond III, was skeptical when he met Dmitry at Krakow in 1604, but he recognized him as the legitimate czar. The pretender ruled from the Kremlin with a rather liberal style until his fiancee arrived from Poland with a large entourage of nobles
and Jesuits. It was more than the boyars could endure. The pretender was killed, his body burned, and the ashes put in a cannonball, which was then fired in the direction of Poland.
Horror stories from those days linger. It is said that at the Optina monastery, the Poles massacred all the monks and then drove the women and children into the village church, which was then set on fire. True or not, it is clear who the villains are. It was therefore probably not politically astute for the pope to appoint, except for one Volga German, only ethnic Poles to be bishops of the new Russian dioceses. From his offices in the Danilovsky Monastery (a prison under the Soviets), Alexei II led his church in sponsoring a bill to restrict all other faiths in the country. He commented: “A law on religions is needed to protect Russians from destructive pseudo-religious cults, and foreign false missionaries.” One wonders whom he had in mind – Polish Jesuits?
Surely the day will come when Russia’s 4 million Roman Catholics and 5 million Eastern Rite Catholics will welcome a pope in their homeland. But he will probably be an Italian, a Nigerian or a Mexican.
Fr. Willard Jabusch writes from Skokie, Ill.
National Catholic Reporter, September 3, 2004
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