ECUMENISM
Patriarch Alexei II of Moscow has accepted an invitation of Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, Archbishop of Bordeaux and President of the French Bishops’ Conference, to visit Paris and meet the Christians of France on the occasion of his visit to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. The visit – the first ever to be made by a Patriarch of Moscow to Paris – will take place on 3 October. During his stay in the French capital, the Patriarch will meet the Russian Orthodox community resident in France, and the representatives of the country’s religious, cultural and political world. News of the visit was carried by “Orthodoxie”: the website for French-language information on Orthodoxy in France and in the world. Cardinal Ricard will offer the Patriarch an official lunch, while the Archbishop of Paris André Vinght-Trois has invited him to visit the relics of the Passion of Christ in Notre-Dame cathedral. In his letter of invitation, Cardinal Ricard expressed the hope that this visit might help to “strengthen the ancient ties of esteem and friendship between the Catholic Church of France and the Russian Orthodox Church”.
