HEADS OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS DEPARTMENTS OF VATICAN AND R.P.Ts. MEET
Institute of Religion and Policy, 4 August 2022
On 4 August 2022, a meeting was held in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican between the chairman of the Department for External Church Relations [OVTsS] of the Moscow patriarchate, Metropolitan of Volokolamsk Antony, and the secretary of the Holy See for Relations with States, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the OVTsS reports.
During the prolonged conversation, current issues pertaining to relations of the Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches were discussed.
As the OVTsS remarks, Metropolitan Antony is now in Rome for an archpastoral visit regarding the administration of parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church in Italy.
At the present time there is widespread discussion of the likelihood and contents of a meeting between Patriarch of Moscow and all-Rus Kirill and Roman Pope Francis, which is possible during the scheduled state visit by the pontiff to Kazakhstan on 13-15 September 2022 and his participation there in the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions.
Thus far the RPTs has maintained silence relative to its attitude toward prospects of such a meeting.
But the president of the Institute of Religion and Policy, Anton Ignatenko, is optimistic. "I can suggest with hope that the trip by His Holiness Patriarch Kirill to Kazakhstan for the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions will occur. . . . I am optimistic; a possible meeting of the pope and patriarch in Kazakhstan is desirable so that the two spiritual leaders can converse and consider how they could find paths to peace," Ignatenko said on Tuesday. (tr. by PDS, posted 5 August 2022)
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