Musical notes: Vatican, Russian Orthodox try new path toward harmony

cns ^ | May 21, 2010 | Cindy Wooden

[NYer]

Pope Benedict XVI, seated next to Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, attends a concert at the Vatican May 20. The concert was a gift from Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow. (CNS/Paul Haring)

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The gentle notes of Sergei Rachmaninoff's "Vocalise" wafted through the Vatican audience hall and carried with them hopes for improved relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church.

After years of tense relations and painstaking theological dialogue, the Vatican and the Russian Orthodox Church are hoping music and art can create an atmosphere more conducive to their efforts to promote Christian unity.

For leaders of both churches, the artistic compositions are not simply window dressing; they are evidence of how much Catholics and Orthodox share and are reminders of how Christianity has shaped European culture.

The May 20 concert capped two days of meetings and a conference that focused on "Russian culture and spirituality in the Vatican."

The last piece on the musical program was "The Song of Ascent," composed by Hilarion Alfeyev, otherwise known as Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, the chief ecumenist of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Metropolitan Hilarion sat near Pope Benedict XVI at the concert, which was performed as a gift to the pope from Patriarch Kirill of Moscow.

Meeting journalists May 19, Metropolitan Hilarion said, "It seems to me that there are things which cannot be transmitted either through theological discourse or diplomacy, but can be transmitted through the language of art."

While theological dialogue is essential for resolving the 1,000-year-old split between the Christian East and West, "the dialogue of the heart" is also necessary, he said.

"Through music we can say something we cannot say through words or diplomatic means or even through theological terms," he said. "The dialogue between cultures can bring many good results. It can liberate us from prejudices, from negative feelings toward each other, which we may have inherited from the past."

Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, told reporters that the work of the Russian composers chosen for the concert "demonstrates not only the quality of Russian music, but also how it is continuously interlaced with faith."

Pointing out the influence of faith on centuries of European art, music and literature is part of both churches' efforts to remind Europeans that Christianity has inspired not only the beauty they see and hear around them, but also the values that have built their democracies and encouraged them to defend human rights and human dignity abroad.

After the concert, Pope Benedict told the audience that "contemporary culture, especially European culture, runs the risk of amnesia -- of forgetting and therefore abandoning the extraordinary patrimony that flows from and is inspired by Christian faith."

Obviously that heritage includes prayer and service, but also centuries of fruitful dialogue between Christianity and the arts and cultures of different peoples, he said.

Pope Benedict said Catholics and Orthodox must work together to help people today see the dangers of ignoring God and of pushing faith out of both private and public life; human dignity itself is threatened when people do not recognize that dignity flows from being created by God and is not the result of a majority vote on who deserves full rights and protection and who does not.

During the concert, Metropolitan Hilarion read a message from Patriarch Kirill, who praised the idea of improving relations through cultural exchanges.

"To understand a people, you need to listen to their music," the patriarch said.

"Music is a particular language that allows us to communicate with our hearts. Music is able to transmit feelings from the human soul and about spiritual states that words are not capable of describing," he said.

While improving Vatican-Russian Orthodox relations was an obvious goal of the concert, both Metropolitan Hilarion and top Vatican officials believe that Christians in Europe have a common mission that cannot be put on hold while the churches attempt to find unity.

"Today, both of us see the importance of promoting Christian values in society. We cannot reduce our relations to just the unresolved theological questions," Metropolitan Hilarion said.

Addressing a symposium on "Orthodox and Catholics in Europe Today" May 19, he said that up until the Second World War, "the relationship between the Orthodox and Western Christian churches was marked by rivalry." But Europe's "tragic history of violence" has made it clear to both that "we must build bridges, write new pages in the history of our relations."

And as more people seem to lose their way ethically and turn their backs on faith, "we do not have a right to concentrate only on that which divides us," he said at the Russian Orthodox Church of St. Catherine.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, told the conference that a new evangelization, "connected to a re-inculturation of the Gospel in Europe, is possible only if it is done ecumenically, in collaboration with the other churches and Christian communities."

But he also said the process could be moved forward if the Russian Orthodox patriarch would finally agree to meet the pope, a meeting the Russians continue to say -- and Metropolitan Hilarion repeated -- can't be scheduled until Catholic-Orthodox tensions are resolved in Western Ukraine.

From the Vatican's point of view, "a meeting between the pope and the Russian patriarch would be an important sign that would make visible and more credible our common commitment," Cardinal Kasper said.

[NYer]

"Through music we can say something we cannot say through words or diplomatic means or even through theological terms," he said.

It has been said that music is the universal language. The director of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" used music to communicate with the aliens.

[Desdemona]

The director of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" used music to communicate with the aliens.

Speilberg? I wonder if that wasn't in the screenplay. Picking Dvorak was an interesting choice considering the overtones of that symphony.

[Stepan12]

They mention "Vocalaise." I am trying to play it HERE.

[GonzoII]

[annalex]

I generally think that it would help the Roman Catholic Church to become more orthodox and the Eastern Orthodox Church to become more catholic.

By that I mean that the Roman Catholic Church needs to stop the flirtation with modernized liturgical forms that resulted from Vatican II, and should more firmly return to the Tridentine liturgical norm. The Orthodox Church, in my humble opinion, should move further away from ethnism (there is a Orthodox word for it which escapes my mind).

It would be wiser to go in that direction before the formal unification takes place. This is why enjoying our easthetic legacy together, such as the hymnody and sacred art, is of perhaps greater importance than rejoining the once-split theological hairs.

[NYer]

generally think that it would help the Roman Catholic Church to become more orthodox and the Eastern Orthodox Church to become more catholic.

The two meld beautifully in the liturgies celebrated in the Eastern Catholic Churches. There we enjoy the richness of Eastern worship while remaining faithful to the Magisterium.

[annalex]

Yes, of course. But the Latin Church with her magnificent and equally authentic liturgical form needs to become more orthodox as well, while keeping her Latin distinctive features. Orthodoxy does not mean merely iconostasis and long beards. It means love for tradition and reluctance to adopt worldly esthetic forms.

[NYer]

But the Latin Church with her magnificent and equally authentic liturgical form needs to become more orthodox as well, while keeping her Latin distinctive features.

I understand what you are saying. The Latin Rites are an expression of the Western Church. This is quite distinct from the Eastern Churches. Recall that Jesus, His Mother and the Apostles were all Jews. Christianity was born in the East. The Eastern Churches manifest that expression in "eastern" ways. Their liturgies are drawn from the writings and prayers of St. Anthony of the Desert, the Twelve Apostles, St. James, etc.

In his book, Captivated By Your Teachings, Fr. Anthony Salim describes the distinct differences between the Eastern and Western approaches to Catholic Faith. He writes:

Our Catholic Faith is a sure expression of what God has revealed in the message and life of Jesus. It is not a blind faith. We really do grow in our knowledge of revealed truths - personally, and as a Community of Believers.

Western Catholicism has had a long-standing emphasis on the rational and systematic ordering of Church beliefs. Since the Middle Ages, the approach to theology has been described as "faith seeking understanding" (fides quaerens intellectum). Using certain categories such as "The Trinity," "Grace," "The Sacraments." et al, has helped define these areas of belief rather strictly.

The Eastern Churches, however, have not usually been so similarly systematic. For them, all the truths of the Catholic heritage have been embodied and celebrated in a liturgical setting - icons, chant and more - and a rich prayer life. The have tended to sing their faith more than categorize it.

This Eastern view may be summed up in a descriptive phrase offered by Robert Murray in his book, Symbols of Church and Kingdom. In it he speaks of fides adorans Mysterium, or "faith adoring the Mystery," by which he means the Mystery of God and divine revelation.

Ironically, given your suggestion, you may find it interesting to know that the author proposes a more systematic approach is needed for the East. He concludes by noting that for the whole Church it is very true that how we pray displays our belief system.

[annalex]

how we pray displays our belief system

Yes. It is in this sense that the Latin Church should become more orthodox: not adopting liturgical forms from the East, but ensuring that the Latin liturgical form is free from corruption of modernism.