ST. PETERSBURG, Russia, NOV. 29, 2005 (Zenit.org).- The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, translated into Russian, was presented officially in St. Petersburg by Cardinal Renato Martino.
The presentation took place Monday in the context of the conferences organized to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council’s pastoral constitution “Gaudium et Spes.”
Cardinal Martino, the president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, is making his first visit to Russia.
He asserted that the Compendium “might signify a point of accord between the Catholic and the Orthodox Church,” and added that the pontifical council he heads is committed to dialogue and agreement between the two Churches.
For his part, Father Byzhanov, secretary for Inter-Christian Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department of Religious Relations, said that the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church is “an excellent witness of the tradition shared by both Churches.”
The priest agreed with Cardinal Martino that the document is of extraordinary importance in the context of present-day society and that it might be a great instrument of collaboration between the Orthodox and Catholics.
The second presentation of the Russian-language Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church will take place Thursday in Moscow. That day Cardinal Martino will end his six-day visit to Russia.
Among those attending the Monday presentation were Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, of the Catholic Archdiocese of the Mother of God in Moscow, and Father Antuan Zondag, representative of Caritas-France, the organization that, together with St. Paul’s Publications, sponsored the translation of the Compendium into Russian.
