“An eloquent means of dialogue and suggestive cultural exchange”, said Cardinal Poupard, President of the Pontifical Council for Culture and the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue, in describing the concert “The Passion according to Matthew”, performed in Rome on 29 March. The concert, the work of Hilarion Alfeyev, Russian orthodox bishop of Vienna and Austria and representative of the Russian Orthodox Church of Moscow at the European Community, “apart from being an important event of a religious, cultural and artistic character”, represents, in Poupard’s view, “a significant moment of encounter and understanding between the Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church, both deeply involved in a process of strengthening mutual esteem, dialogue and collaboration”. The concert, the cardinal said, “is undoubtedly a valuable occasion for Catholics and Orthodox to travel together along the ‘road of beauty’, which we hope may increasingly become a means of collaboration and communion between our Churches, creatively involved in the mission of proclaiming Christ”.
