Executive Secretary of the Russian Conference of Catholic Bishops Igor Kovalevsky has admitted that some of the steps taken by Vatican representatives in Russia could be qualified as proselytism (conversion of the Orthodox population to Catholicism).
"Certain facts cause surprise and may be interpreted as proselytism. However, this has not been done deliberately," Kovalevsky told a briefing following the first session of a joint working group for relations between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches.
"The Catholic Church has no plans of pursuing missionary activities in Russia. Russia is not New Guinea or some African country where it is necessary to preach Christianity. Russia is a country with more than one thousand years of Christian culture," he said.
"The Vatican is not pursuing any proselytism policy. It has no goal of making Russia a Catholic nation," Kovalevsky said.
The Russian Orthodox Church, however, has expressed skepticism over the Vatican representative's remarks.