Relations between the two Churches, which officially split in 1054 and have maintained distant relations ever since, were complicated further in 2002 when the Vatican set up a Catholic diocese on Russian territory. The Russian Church accuses the Vatican of proselytizing in Russia and the former Soviet Union, which the Moscow patriarchate declared its canonical territory in the early 1990s.
"The Catholic mission continues to target people baptized in the Orthodox Church in Russia and other ex-Soviet nations, and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church maintains its unfriendly policy in relation to the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church," Patriarch Alexy II told an annual bishopric session of the Moscow clergy.
The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is the third largest in Ukraine in terms of believers after the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church controlled by the Moscow patriarchate and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church run by the Kiev patriarchate.
The latter declared itself independent of the Russian church in 1989, but has not been recognized by the Eastern Orthodox Communion.
"I hope the Vatican will take measures to improve the situation," Alexy II said, adding that otherwise contacts between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches would be merely protocol and would "bring no relief to people hurt by the unfriendly actions" of Catholic missionaries.
Last November, senior representatives of the Orthodox and Catholic churches met in Moscow for the first time ever to discuss the social teachings of both denominations and their influence on society, but Alexy II has said there will be no top-level meetings until the Vatican changes its policy.
