"IN ORDER TO MEET WITH A BROTHER." POPE READY TO TRAVEL TO MOSCOW TO KIRILL
Religiina Pravda, 6 December 2021
Pope Francis is ready to arrive in Russia for a meeting with Patriarch of Moscow Kirill. Tge parties will determine a date this week. The pontiff declared this to journalists on board an airplane after his visit to Greece, RBK reports, citing Reuters.
"I am ready to go to Moscow for dialogue with a brother. There are no protocols for this," he said.
Francis noted that
this week Rome
will be visited by a highly placed representative of the Russian
Orthodox
Church, when a decision will be made regarding the place and
date of a meeting
with Kirill. (tr. by PDS, posted 7 December 2021)
R.P.Ts. STATES POSSIBILITY OF PATRIARCH'S MEETING WITH POPE, BUT STILL DOES NOT KNOW WHEN AND WHERE IT WILL OCCUR
Interfax-Religiia, 6 December 2021
The Russian Orthodox Church (RPTs) is not ready to name a date or place of a meeting of Patriarch Kirill with Pope Francis, the head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow patriarchate, Metropolitan Ilarion, reported.
"My visit with Roman Pope Francis is scheduled during the 20's of December. I plan to congratulate him in the name of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill on his 85th birthday and also to discuss with him a wide range of matters pertaining to the bilateral relations between our churches. Among these matters is a possible future meeting of Pope Francis with Patriarch Kirill. Neither the place nor the date of this meeting has yet been determined," the metropolitan said in comments that were published on Monday on the website of the department.
Earlier on Monday there appeared a report in news media from a traditional briefing that Pope Francis gave on board an airplane, stating that in the foreseeable future he will meet with the head of the RPTs and that it possibly will occur in Finland, where Patriarch Kirill is planning to go, and that he himself, the pope, is ready to go to Moscow for a meeting.
Meanwhile, Metropolitan Ilarion reported that some years ago an invitation to the patriarch actually arrived from the head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, but since then "much water has flowed," and the intra-Orthodox situation has changed, a pandemic began, and "at the present time preparations for the visit have been suspended."
"Regarding a visit by the pope to Moscow, I can say that this issue has not been discussed at the bilateral level," the metropolitan added, expressing the hope that a meeting in the Vatican, scheduled for the 20s of December, will permit a discussion of all matters of mutual interest. (tr. by PDS, posted 7 December 2021)
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