"Another sign of brotherhood and friendliness with the Catholic Church", added Benedict XVI, was the invitation of Card. Kasper, made by Your Eminence Kirill, Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, and President of the Department for External Ecclesiastical Relations of the Patriarchate of Moscow. The metropolitan invited the Cardinal to visit his Eparchy on the occasion of his name day. "This wrote the Pope is not just a sign of personal benevolence, but also an important gesture towards the Catholic Church of which Cardinal Kasper is a representative". In his message to Alexius II, Benedict XVI recalled the visit which Kasper paid to Kazan in the last few days, in order to venerate the icon of the Mother of God which Pope John Paul II wanted to be brought back to Russia in 2004. Then he added: "His Holiness committed himself to a greater and greater extent to dialogue with the other Christians and members of other religions. I am deeply grateful to him and follow these signs of friendliness and trust with devoted interest. The Church and its representatives showed us those signs in many ways". The Letter concluded with an invocation to Resurrected Christ for Him "to approach us with each other; in this way, we can make our journey together, towards full communion with Him".
