Russian Orthodox Archbishop Zosima of Elista and Kalmykia paid a visit to Benedict XVI in the Vatican on Thursday 13 September, during which he conveyed the greetings of the Patriarch of Moscow and all the Russias, Alexei II. The visit is reported by the Russian Interfax press agency, citing the press office of the diocese of Elista and Kalmykia. Archbishop Zosima, writes Interfax, told Benedict XVI “it’s important to deliver Christian values to the modern world together with the Roman Catholic Church”. “Benedict XVI thanked the archbishop for his visit and sent his greetings to Alexei II”. Zosima, writes Interfax, also described to the Pope “the revival of the Russian Orthodox Church”. A copy of the Gospel translated into kalmyk and an icon of the Mother of God set the seal on the visit. Meanwhile growing optimism is being expressed about the possibility of a meeting between Benedict XVI and Alexei II. Patriarch Alexei II himself has explained on what conditions such a meeting could take place. In the course of a recent meeting in Moscow, he said: “I am often asked for a meeting with the Pope. I don’t exclude that such a meeting could take place. But the meeting would have to be well prepared and the difficulties opened up between us in the 1990s would have to be overcome”. Writing in the French Catholic paper “La Croix”, Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, who recently met Patriarch Alexei II in person, commented: “The media never stop reporting the slightest signals of brotherly solidarity to fix the place and date of a meeting that remains to be fixed between pope and patriarch. On both sides the desire is ardent, but there’s also the concern to ensure the truth of a gesture that would be full of ecclesial significance”.
