Geburtstag: Russisches Fernsehen bringt Papst-Grußbotschaft

[Robert Ketelhohn]

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Papal birthday – Russian television broadcasts message of greeting from the Holy Father to the Russian people

Moscow/Rome/Königstein. For the first time ever, on the birthday of the Pope on 16 April, a state television channel in Russia will be broadcasting a documentary film about Pope Benedict XVI. The climax of the film will be an address by the Holy Father in which, for the first time in history, the Head of the Catholic Church will speak on television to the Russian people and express his regard for them. His message of greeting will be addressed to Patriarch Alexei II, the Head of the Russian Orthodox Church, to Orthodox Christians, to the Catholic bishops and ordinary Catholics in Russia and to all those living on Russian soil. In his address, which will be partly in Russian, Benedict XVI will emphasise above all the necessity of dialogue among Christians.

The documentary film was sponsored and promoted by the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need and will be broadcast by the state news channel Vesti. It will also include important stages in the life and work of Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, whose life is as yet little known among the Russian people. Among others interviewed, who formerly accompanied the present Pope during his life will be his elder brother, Monsignor Georg Ratzinger who, as he himself acknowledges, rarely gives interviews but agreed to make an exception for the Russian film crew. The documentary is introduced by Archpriest Igor Vyzhanov, the secretary for inter-Christian dialogue of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate.

Both in Rome and in Moscow there is an awareness that the "film and the Papal message are a beautiful symbol of the process of rapprochement between the two Churches" as ACN’s Russia expert, Peter Humeniuk puts it. It was he who has been in charge of the project right from the start and whose ideas formed part of the input for the film. The project was carried out in close collaboration with the Moscow Patriarchate -- and in particular with Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, the Vice Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Orthodox Church, who provided expert support for the project -- and likewise with the Apostolic Nuncio in Moscow, Archbishop Antonio Mennini. The film was produced in Saint Petersburg by the interdenominational Christian media agency Blagovest Media, under the direction of Nikolaj Goryachkin in collaboration with the Catholic Radio and Television Network (CRTN), which is based near Frankfurt in Germany and headed by Mark von Riedemann. The Vatican television channel CTV provided extensive archive material for the project. Director Nikolaj Goryachkin paid particular tribute to the helpfulness and cooperation on the part of Father Federico Lombardi, the head of the Vatican press office.

Peter Humeniuk comments, "During my journeys throughout Russia I come across many people who express a desire for objective information about the Pope and the Catholic Church. I hope that the film about Benedict XVI will help to meet this need." He added that it was "an occasion of great joy and a historic event" that the Holy Father should address himself personally to the Russian people. He finds it an especially beautiful gesture that the film is being televised on the Pope's birthday.

All in all, Peter Humeniuk believes, the dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church is progressing. ACN sees itself as a "catalyst" in this process, he added, for although the charity is not a direct partner in the interreligious dialogue, it does promote many initiatives that serve this end. In this context he sees the film as "a sign" that Christians are turning towards one another and becoming aware of the shared basis of the two Churches … [weiter]