Ecumenical conversations with Bishop Basil

This article by Jan Grootaers brings together personal recollections and unpublished documents relating to the ecumenical contacts maintained with Archbishop Basil (Krivocheine) of Brussels during the 1960s and 1970s. Adopting an approach of documented testimony, the author traces the joint public initiatives — ecumenical evenings, interviews in the Catholic press — as well as private conversations of which he has preserved detailed accounts. The central idea is that Archbishop Basil, a figure often studied for his patristic theology, was also a clear-sighted and courageous ecumenical actor, capable of nuanced analyses of the Russian Orthodox Church under Soviet pressure, of inter-Orthodox relations, and of dialogue with Rome. The historical contribution of the article lies in the uncovering of previously unknown positions held by the Archbishop: his assessment of the patriarchate of Alexis I, his reservations about Metropolitan Nikodim, and his prophetic views on Uniatism as an obstacle to Catholic-Orthodox dialogue.