Pope offers Treasured Icon to Orthodox Church in efforts for Reconciliation

The Pope John Paul II, in an attempt to improve ties with the Russian Orthodox Church, sent an treasured icon back to Moscow on Wednesday. The offering which may pave the way for a papal trip, has come after the icon has spent nearly a century in the West.

The Pope has expressed his hope that the return of the precious icon to the Russian Orthodox Church would hasten "mutual understanding and reconciliation" between the Roman Catholic Church and its eastern counterpart.

The icon is one of the virgin of Kazan (the “Mother of God of Kazan”), which was handed over by the Pope to a senior cardinal during a rare Vatican performance of the liturgy in Russian. Cardinal Walter Kasper will now take the icon to Moscow where he will present it to Patriarch Alexy II on Saturday.

The icon is a model of one of the most honoured religious images in Russia. The original was stolen 100 years ago from a Kazan church, 372 miles east of Moscow, and is thought to have been destroyed.

This copy, given by the Pope, is coated with silver and precious stones, and has been with the Pope for the past 11 years. It has exchanged hands a number of times and was bought for £556, before being presented to the Pope by a Catholic group. The Pope had kept the painting hanging above a desk in his private apartment, and has said that it has guided his daily work.

The unique ceremony was part of the Pope's weekly general audience, attended by approximately 7,000 pilgrims, many of whom held up video cameras and took photographs as a priest carried the icon high above his head into the audience.

On Thursday, the icon will be displayed for the first - and last - time inside Saint Peter's Basilica for veneration by the faithful.

The Pope said he hoped the "ancient image of the Mother of the Lord" would speak to Patriarch Alexy II and the Orthodox Church of the Pope's affection for them.

"May it speak to him of the desire and the firm will of the Pope of Rome to progress together with them on the path of mutual understanding and reconciliation, to speed the day of full unity of the faithful, for which the Lord Jesus ardently prayed," he said.

Russia is a nation which has been Christian for many centuries," said the pope, referring to the country as 'Santa Rus'.

"Even when opposing forces harassed the Church and tried to cancel from the lives of men the holy name of God, this people remained profoundly Christian, testifying in may cases with blood their own faith in the Gospel."

The Orthodox Church, which has had a history of accusing Rome of proselytism by setting up parishes in traditionally-Orthodox countries in eastern Europe, including Russia and Ukraine, has played down the gesture, saying that the icon is only one of several copies of the original.

The relations between the Catholic and Orthodox churches, which split about 1,000 years ago, have been tense in recent years.

The Russian Church leaders have constantly opposed a Papal visit to Russia because the Catholic Church has pursued an expansionist policy inside Russian territories trying to poach converts. However, the Vatican denies such a claim.

Even so, last year the Vatican started the initial planning for a papal trip to Mongolia, with a stopover in Kazan, 500 miles east of Moscow, so the Pope could return the icon personally. But Alexy vetoed the idea.

Relations deteriorated even further two years ago when John Paul II created four new parishes in Moscow, which drew an angry response from Alexy II, who accused the Vatican of meddling in Orthodox affairs.

Despite continued endeavours at commencing full ecumenical dialogue, relations have remained cool, appearing to end any hope of the pontiff realising his dream of visiting Russia, which is one of the few countries to elude him in a 26-year pontificate that has so far included 104 foreign visits.

The icon itself has a shadowy history. It was mysteriously spirited away from communist Russia in the 1920s, and came into the possession of an English nobleman who sold it on to a right-wing Catholic group, who in turn, presented it to John Paul II.