ECUMENISM
On December 7, Pope Benedict XVI received in private audience metropolitan bishop Kyrill, who directs the Foreign Affairs department of Moscow’s Patriarchate. The meeting was centred on bilateral relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church as well as Catholic-Orthodox dialogue. In an interview released to the “Osservatore Romano”, metropolitan Kyrill defined the audience with the Pope “a very positive step towards unity”, “one of those bricks which act as pillars and enable the implementation of important steps towards the construction of unity”, confirming the definition of “thaw” which he himself gave the day after the appointment of Msgr. Paolo Pezzi to Moscow’s Catholic archbishopric. “By closely examining all the things we did together in these recent years – the high Orthodox prelate explained – the assessment of our efforts can only be a positive one”. As relates to the “difficulties” in the theological dialogue, he remarked that “dialogue is the best tool to find a common solution to existing problems”. “We want to engage in a dialogue with the Catholic Church and are aware of the importance of the development of our mutual relations. We believe it is importance to strengthen our cooperation in the broad field of dialogue between religions”. The “decisive step” that Russian Orthodox and Catholics should make, according to the Metropolitan bishop, is “understanding deep down that we are not strangers to one another”. In the interview released by Metropolitan Kyrill to the ‘Osservatore Romano’, there is no mention to the question of the Catholic diocese established in Russia by John Paul II. In a conference held in Moscow in the past days, Kyrill had claimed that in order to improve relations between Moscow and the Vatican, the dioceses would have to be abolished and that it was necessary to return to the canonical status of 2002, that is, to the apostolic administrations. The meeting between Kyrill and the Pope in inscribed in the Metropolitan’s trip to Italy. It began on December 7 in Venice where he met with Cardinal Angelo Scola and attended, under the invitation by the city mayor, a conference devoted to Paul Florensky. The meeting with Cardinal Scola was also attended by the bishop of Udine Msgr. Pietro Bollo. The three prelates discussed the Orthodox presence in Venice and in the Veneto Region. Once in Rome, following the meeting with Pope Benedict XVI, the Metropolitan consecrated the crypt of the Russian Orthodox Church Santa Caterina d’Alessandria in Rome, dedicating it to the Saints Costantino and Elena. He also visited Saint Peter’s Basilica to venerate the reliquary of Apostle Peter, of Pope Gregorius and Saint Gregorius of Nissa. He then met the seminarists of Moscow’s patriarchate who study in Rome.
