Pope Francis proposed to the Russian Orthodox Patriarch, Cyril, a meeting at the end of August or beginning of September at the Moscow airport, during his visit to Mongolia, the leader of a religious organization reported this Sunday.
“The Pope proposed to the patriarch that they meet at one of the Moscow airports. The airport is a transit area, where a meeting could also take place,” Leonid Sebostyanov, head of the World Union of Old Believers, told the official RIA Novosti news agency.
According to the Vatican, Francis plans to travel to Mongolia from August 31 to September 4, where he will hold an interfaith meeting and mass in a small Catholic community.
The Roman pontiff and the Russian patriarch already met in 2016 at the Havana airport, the first meeting between the leaders of these two churches in almost a millennium, since the Great Schism of 1054.
“If there is a response from the patriarch, without delaying too long, this meeting can take place,” Sebostyanov said.
Cyril refused to meet the Pope in September 2022, on the sidelines of the world religions conference, which was held in Kazakhstan.
The Russian Patriarch, who maintains a close relationship with President Vladimir Putin, has asked the Russians, in his homilies, to close ranks with the Kremlin and the Russian Army against the Ukrainian government.
For this reason, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, until then loyal to Cyril, announced in May 2022 its break with the Moscow Patriarchate.
The pope’s envoy, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, traveled last month to Moscow and kyiv, where he discussed humanitarian initiatives that could pave the way for peace.
Zuppi was received in kyiv by President Volodymyr Zelensky and in Moscow he met with Cyril and the Kremlin adviser for international affairs.
Source: TSF
