Vatican to return icon to Russia

Pope John Paul II believes “the time is ripe” to return a revered icon to Russia, hoping to give a major push to improving relations between Catholics and Russian Orthodox Christians, his spokesman said today.

The Vatican announced yesterday that the icon of the Mother of God of Kazan, which usually hangs in the Pope’s private chapel, would be given back next month. The Vatican has held the icon for three decades.

The wooden icon, which first appeared in Kazan in 1579, hung in the Kazan Cathedral in Moscow’s Red Square and the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg before being taken to the West after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. A Catholic group bought the icon in the 1970s and later presented it to the Pope.

John Paul II has long dreamed of visiting Russia, but because of tense between Catholics and Orthodox since the fall of communism what would have been the first trip by a Roman Catholic pontiff there has been impossible. The pontiff had been hoping to return the icon himself.

The pope’s spokesman, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, said that the fact that the icon was being returned, but not brought by the pope, doesn’t mean the pontiff has given up on the idea of a Russian trip.

“Donation is not necessarily connected to the possibility of a papal trip,” Navarro-Valls said.

The spokesman said there had been some positive steps between Catholics and Orthodox in recent weeks, and that John Paul viewed the “time is ripe for such a donation.”

During a recent visit by the spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians to the Vatican, both sides agreed that stalled theological talks must be resumed.