VESELOVKA, Belarus - The head of the Russian Orthodox Church joined the Belarussian president on Wednesday in denouncing Western "expansion" as the pope's visit to Ukraine came to an end.
Patriarch Alexiy II, standing alongside President Alexander Lukashenko at a point where the borders of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine meet, made no direct reference to John Paul's visit to a country with 6 million Catholics.
But the two men urged Slavs in all three countries to resist attempts to break what he called their unity under Orthodoxy.
"Unfortunately, there are those who do not stand with the unity of Slavs and their leading role in the moral transformation of the world," they said in a joint statement.
"These forces, under cover of peacemaking rhetoric, are conducting a spiritual, economic and political expansion. We urge the fraternal Slav peoples not to give into the temptation of division and hostility...."
The patriarch and president stood before a 35-foot obelisk, flanked by the flags of the three mainly Slav former Soviet republics. Lukashenko presented Alexiy with golden standards to be placed in Moscow's vast post-Soviet Christ the Savior cathedral as choirs sang Orthodox hymns.
PRESIDENT BLASTS "WESTERN WAY OF LIFE"
"The majority of Slav peoples do not accept the cult forced on us of permissiveness and laxity of the Western way of life," Lukashenko told the gathering.
The Patriarch has been pursuing a five-day pastoral visit to Belarus, on Russia's western border. It was meant to mark the 60th anniversary of Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union, but coincided with John Paul's visit to Ukraine.
Alexiy, who backed out of a meeting with the Pope in 1997, has said the pope's stay in Ukraine could end attempts to improve relations between the two faiths, split since the Great Schism of 1054. Ukraine's largest, pro-Moscow Orthodox church has opposed the visit, though two smaller ones welcomed it.
Alexiy has said that no meeting can take place with John Paul until Catholics put right what he says is the seizure of Orthodox property and the poaching of Orthodox congregations.
Eastern-rite Catholics in Ukraine say they are reclaiming churches seized when Josef Stalin banned their faith in 1946. John Paul has denied any attempts to woo Orthodox believers.
Lukashenko, accused in the West of eroding human rights in his country of 10 million, is seeking re-election in September.
He professes no religious belief and described himself at Wednesday's ceremony as an "Orthodox atheist." But he sees the church as an ally in promoting his dream of recreating a post-Soviet "union state" with Russia.
Belarussian officials have stressed the absence of religious conflicts compared to Ukraine. Both Orthodox, 84 percent of the population, and Catholics, accounting for 14 percent, have concentrated efforts on taking back property from state hands.
14:37 06-27-01
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