Saturday, February 19, 2011

Pope, Patriarch will meet "when time comes" - Russian Church

The meeting between Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia and the Pope will happen when there are appropriate conditions for that, the Moscow Patriarchate said.

"The Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church maintain a regime of constant communication and consultations at various levels. And when, in the view of both parties, the time comes for the meeting between the leaders of two Churches, we will notify the international community," deputy head of the Department for External Church Relations Archpriest Nikolay Balashov told Interfax-Religion on Thursday.

The context of the relationship between the two Churches should not be linked to the meeting between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Pope Benedict XVI in Vatican city on Thursday, he stressed.

An unnamed source from the Russian presidential delegation said ahead of Medvedev's formal visit to the Vatican: "Currently, the meeting between the leaders of the two Christian Churches is feasible more than ever. The Russian president could discuss this subject during a conversation with the Pope," the Russian newspaper Kommersant wrote on Thursday.

So far there is no question about delivering a formal invitation to the Pope to visit Russia, he added.