Yeah, I guess the Russian Orthodox Patriarch would like to resume contacts to the Pope, even though he, and the Russian State, continue their persecution of Catholics in Russia. ...Lest anyone think that the establishment of four dioceses in Russia by the Catholic Church (for the Roman Catholics) was the lynchpin to this persecution, then why were 23 Christian ministers, including Roman Catholic priests, expelled even before the raising of the four Catholic apostolic administrative areas to full diocese status?
That Russia would defend the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) against foreign intruders, whoever they may be, is no surprise. In a way I'd expect nothing less. Historically it fits right in: Alexander Nevsky vs. the Teutonic Knights, Boris Godunov vs. False Dimitry and the Poles...
It’s fair to ask what exactly you want: a state Church, only yours (Catholic), not theirs? Or modern secular religious pluralism? When Catholics use the latter argument it only makes them sound like just another liberal Protestant denomination.
In a country such as the US where no Orthodox or Catholic church has put down roots as a state church, religious freedom makes sense because it's a relative good that lets the church flourish.
But Russia isn't America. (Duh.)
Aid to the Church in Need does wonderful work AFAIK in Russia, building up, not tearing down, the ROC. Would that some of your confreres, such as Gerard and the retired RC archbishop of Anchorage, did likewise.
IMO the proper Catholic stance in Russia is this: a passive position ministering to its ethnic German and Polish flock,
accepting conversions of Russians (most of whom are hitherto unchurched, not Orthodox) but not
soliciting them, NOT competing with the ROC, with the goal of corporate reunion in the long run (per Balamand). AFAIK this is the gentlemanly official position of Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz in Moscow.
