Your Eminence!
Yesterday evening the Portal-credo.ru Internet site published news, reprinted from the Moscow patriarchate site. [See below] This news contained quotations from an official document supposedly received by the Department of External Church Relations of the Moscow patriarchate. It supposedly contained a condemnation of the rebirth of the Russian exarchate of the Byzantine-rite Russian Catholics, declared the uncanonical nature of the actions of participants in the council at Sargatskoe, reported official notifications sent to those participants, and hinted that certain "measures of canonical procedures" had been, or would be, taken with respect to them.
This news cannot evoke any other reaction but that this is a provocation. Because it is too hard to believe that this information is true.
Because it is hard to understand how a decision, which hundreds of faithful of the Catholic church have been nervously awaiting for a long time, could turn out to be conveyed to them through the Communications Service of OVTsSMP, which is known for its continuous, false anti-Catholic propaganda. If the information that the Moscow patriarchate site reports corresponds to the truth, then its first appearance should have been published in your name directly in the news media. That has not been done. Consequently, is this a falsification?
However, if this is a falsification, then it is extremely impudent, grimy, and dangerous for the state of minds of faithful believers of the Catholic church, both of the Byzantine and of the Latin rites. It contains not simply quotations of your words but also points to "official documents" which could have been sent to RPTsMP only with the knowledge and approval of the Vatican. This publication forces Russian Catholics to believe that the Holy See, disdaining the hopes and desperate calls of its own flock, is trying to achieve a dialogue and dubious agreements with its persecutors. Is this possible? As one who is true to the Catholic church and who does not doubt its sanctity and sincere concern for the needs of believers, I cannot answer any other way than "no, this is impossible."
It is impossible to believe that you could affirm that an exarchate of Russian Catholics does not exist, because it was not abolished, as official documents of the Holy See testified, and we all are its believers.
It is impossible to believe that you indicated the absence of "juridical bases" in the decisions of the council in Sargatstkoe. That this council had a sufficient quantity of juridical bases is known to every interested person in Russia, including the humblest of the laity, which I am. These bases were laid out in all official documents of the fathers of the council, with which you of course are acquainted. They were set forth in detail in the book by Paul Parfentiev, which all who wish can see and read at the URL
http://icxc.narod.ru/links/rkcvo.htm. I doubt that this foundational work has escaped the attention of Your Eminence and that you, as a recognized church leader and scholar are unable to recognize the seriousness and weight of the canonical bases contained there.
It is impossible to believe that you could tell a lie in assuring representatives of RPTsMP that all of the participants of the council in Sargatskoe received "official notification about the noncompliance of such an initiative with Catholic canons and, consequently, of its being ineffective." As a person who is immediately and personally acquainted with a majority of the participants of the council, I can officially and under oath affirm that not a single one of the participants of the council received such letters.
It is impossible to believe that you could consider the activity of the Society of the Monks of St. Basil the Great, who have over the course of many years frequently demonstrated by their conduct only fealty to the Holy See and readiness to suffer, for the sake of that loyalty as well as for the sake of loyalty to their own people and Russia, all manner of evils and woes, as "unauthorized." Or that you could demean their honor and dignity by repeating the lies and fantasies engendered by their enemies.
It is impossible to believe that you really said and did all of the above enumerated things, which would, in essence, be a betrayal of the hopes and yearnings of a Catholic church that is one of the most vulnerable and persecuted, and most in need of the pastoral support of the Holy See, for the sake of temporary political interests.
It is impossible to believe that you would not understand that such a step is murder of all genuine ecumenism. In sacrificing honest people, its own believers, the Catholic church would risk forever driving from itself all people who trust in Christ and strive to be faithful to the Gospel--all those with whom she only can conduct real ecumenical dialogue. We would discredit ourselves and become traitors and betrayers of Christ in the eyes of our true Orthodox brethren, who would forever cease to trust us.
It is impossible to believe that there exist such political interests which would be served by way of betrayal of one's own faithful believers.
It is impossible to believe that you do not understand that this sacrifice to Moloch, the RPTsMP, will be in vain. It is impossible to believe that you do not know what this Moloch will demand of you, the Russian Catholic church of the Latin rite, as the next sacrifice.
I do not believe. And all my brothers and sisters of the Catholic church of the Byzantine and Latin rites in Russia agree with me.
For the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, for the sake of the unity of the church, for the sake of all that is sacred remaining in human hearts, for the sake of Christian charity--refute this lie. And the sooner, the better, since every minute of this terrible uncertainty takes years of life away from those whose life is based on this.
With faith and hope
Natalia Geda
It's disgusting, plain and simple. 
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