POPE FRANCIS PHONES PATRIARCH KIRILL
The Vatican press commented on a conversation that was held today between Roman Pope Francis and Patriarch of Moscow and all-Rus Kirill.
In the evening of 16 March, responding to journalists' questions, the director of the press service of the Holy See, Matteo Bruni, declared:
"I am able to confirm that this afternoon there was a conversation by video link between Pope Francis and His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and all-Rus Kirill."
Also participating in the meeting were His Eminence Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and Metropolitan of Volokolamsk Ilarion, chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow patriarchate.
The conversation was devoted to the war in Ukraine and the role of Christians and their pastors, intending to do everything possible for establishing peace.
Pope Francis thanked the patriarch for the meeting, motivated by a desire to show—in their capacity as pastors of their people—a path to peace and to pray for granting peace and a ceasefire. The Holy Father agreed with the patriarch that the church must use not the lexicon of politics by the language of Jesus Christ.
"We are pastors of one and the same Holy People, who believe in God, in the Most Holy Trinity, and in the Most Holy Theotokos. Therefore we must join together in the attempt to help the world, to support the suffering, to seek the path of peace, and to halt the gunfire."
The sides emphasized the exceptional importance of continuing the negotiation process, inasmuch, as the pope noted, "the people who pay for war are Russian soldiers and the people who are subjected to bombardment and who perish."
"As pastors," the pope continued, "we are obliged to be alongside and to help everybody who suffers from war. Once even our church talked about a holy or just war. We cannot talk like that today. The Christian understanding of the importance of peace has developed."
Agreeing with the patriarch that "the church is called to facilitate the strengthening of peace and justice," Pope Francis concluded: "Wars are always unjust because the people of God pay for them. Our hearts cannot but weep before the children and women killed and before all victims of war. War never can be the way out. The Holy Spirit who unites us urges us, pastors, that we help the people who are suffering from war." (tr. by PDS, posted 17 March 2022)
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