AUTHOR'S BIO
Alexey Bukalov
Alexey Bukalov, is ITAR-TASS bureau chief in Rome, who has covered the Vatican affairs for over 10 years.
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From Rome to Moscow
Alexey Bukalov Series: A Window on Russia 2005-08-11One of the late Pope John Paul II’s unfulfilled dreams was to visit Moscow and forge a rapprochement with the Orthodox Church. But, although he was invited to Moscow by Russia’s three most recent presidents – Vladimir Putin, Boris Yeltsin, and Mikhail Gorbachev – opposition to the visit by Orthodox Patriarch Alexi prevented the Pope from making the journey before he died. Will Pope Benedict XVI achieve the breakthrough that his friend and predecessor failed to realize?... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 36486
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The Everlasting Schism
Alexey Bukalov Series: A Window on Russia 2002-04-02Christianity's holiest days always seem to incite fresh disputes between Roman Catholicism and Russian Orthodoxy, between the first Rome and the third Rome. This Easter is no different. What's new this time is that the current storm came out of the blue. ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 11377
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The Distance Between the First and Third Rome
Alexey Bukalov Series: A Window on Russia 2001-01-12MOSCOW/ROME: For a decade, Pope John Paul II has been flying in circles around Mother Russia: one day he visits the Baltics or his homeland of Poland; the next, Orthodox Romania and Georgia. In June, 2001 Pope John Paul II will visit Ukraine and Armenia, both parts of the former Soviet Union and both still watched over warily by Russia’s Orthodox Church. Karol Wojtyla, the first Slavic Pope in history, has long dreamed of visiting Moscow; indeed he may see such a visit as putting the finishing touch on his long, turbulent pontificate. But, a decade after communism’s collapse, it is Russia’s churchmen, not its politicians, who are blocking the way. ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 14813
