On December 22, Pope Francis met in the Vatican with the head of the External Church Relations Department of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeev) of Volokolamsk.
Early in the meeting, the metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church on behalf of Moscow Patriarch Kirill (Gundyaev) congratulated the Primate of the Roman Catholic Church on his 85th birthday.
According to the MP press service, the pontiff welcomed the ROC metropolitan, “expressing heartfelt gratitude to Patriarch Kirill for the congratulations and their consistently high level of cooperation.”
The ROC also boasted of a “long” meeting that took place in a “warm atmosphere.”
Meanwhile, the Vatican press service wrote that the meeting had lasted an hour.
The parties discussed “various issues of common concern among the Russian Orthodox and Catholic Churches,” the Vatican said in a statement.
In conclusion, Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeev) conveyed to Pope Francis a greeting address from Kirill and the icon of the Madonna of God “of the Sign.”
After meeting with the pontiff, Hilarion said in a comment to TASS that the ROC in Ukraine is “now subject to discrimination, and in some places – persecution,” therefore the Pope is unlikely to visit Ukraine.
It is possible that the ROC envoy attempted to talk the Pope out of visiting Ukraine, although the country is home to a larger Catholic flock than in Russia. In addition, he decided to use the visit to the Vatican as another opportunity to bring up the insinuations about the “persecuted” ROC parishes in Ukraine. Meanwhile, the ROCinU has failed to back such allegations by evidence in court.
At the same time, neither the Vatican nor the Russian side announced or discussed measures toward preparing a meeting of Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill.
Earlier, Head of the UGCC Archbishop Sviatoslav (Shevchuk) spoke about the Pope’s visit to Ukraine. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine confirmed that efforts to organize a possible visit of the Pope to Ukraine are “on the agenda”.
We earlier reported that ROC Metropolitan Hilarion would meet with the Primate of the Catholic Church. Also on December 6, while onboard the plane, Pope Francis announced that he was set to meet Patriarch Kirill of Moscow for the second time. Then the pontiff said that the meeting with the ROC patriarch was not too far off and announced a meeting with ROC’s top diplomat Metropolitan Hilarion.
Religious expert Oleksandr Yefremenko also noted that the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill (Gundyaev), equated himself with the Pope.
