Moscow Archbishop: Pope-Putin
meeting a quest for dialogue, peace
 |
| Pope Francis and Vladimir Putin meeting in the Vatican in June 2015 |
Russian President, Vladimir Putin is scheduled to meet Pope
Francis in the Vatican on July 4. According to the Catholic Archbishop of
Moscow, Paolo Pezzi, issues such as dialogue, peace and the environment are
likely to dominate the talks but he is not optimistic about a possible papal
visit to Russia.
By Robin Gomes
Archbishop Paolo Pezzi of the Archdiocese of the Mother of
God in Moscow, Russia, is enthusiastic about the next meeting between Pope
Francis and Russian President Vladimir Putin, scheduled for Thursday in the
Vatican.
Dialogue, peace, common home
“Even though we are not aware of the programme of the
meeting, I can imagine that themes dear to the Holy Father, such as peace and
safeguarding our common home, are likely to be on the agenda of discussion,”
the Italian-born archbishop told FM radio Radio Vaticana Italia.
The July 4 meeting will be the third between Pope Francis
and Putin in the Vatican. They first met on November 25, 2013, and in
less than two years they met again on June 10, 2015.
The Holy See and the Russian Federation re-established
bilateral relations in 1990 and re-established full diplomatic relations in
2009.
While underscoring Russia's importance in the quest for
world peace, Arch. Pezzi noted the pope’s deep commitment to peace among
peoples. What the Church expects from this third meeting between Pope
Francis and Russian President Vladimir Putin, he said, is to be able to
continue to dialogue.
Even though the agenda of the upcoming meeting is unknown,
the 58-year old archbishop hopes that issues very dear to Pope Francis, such as
peace in the world and the defence of our common home, the creation, will
be on the table.
Commenting on the style of dialogue of the Holy Father, he
said the Argentine pope wants to know about and listen a lot to the other while
at the same time allowing himself to be questioned and be challenged by what he
hears. At the same time, without being verbose, he prefers to go to the
heart of the matter with gestures and few words.
Possible papal visit?
Even though everyone would greatly wish that Putin’s visit
would result in a possible invitation for the Pope to visit Moscow, Arch Pezzi
believes it is not likely. Even though it is the political power that
formally invites the pope, most importantly it is the religious authority of
the place that seeks to have the Pope as a guest.
“As it appears up till now,” Arch. Pezzi said, “there hasn’t
been any official invitation from the part of the Russian Orthodox Church, the
most important religious element of the country, and it is not likely the
Russian president will invite the pope on his own without the backing of the
Orthodox Church.
Catholic-Orthodox
relations
Pope Francis and Putin are meeting this week amid improving
relations between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. The two leaders
will be meeting for the first time since the historic meeting between Pope
Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill in 2016, regarded as a
major step in healing the bitterness of the Great Schism of 1054 that split the
followers of Christ into Eastern Orthodoxy and Western Catholicism.
With 165 million faithful out of some 250 million Orthodox
Christians worldwide, the Russian Orthodox Church is the largest in the
Orthodox world.
Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, and
Boris Yeltsin, the first president of post-Soviet Russia, had invited the late
Pope St. John Paul II to visit Russia.
Pope Francis has made several trips to countries with
predominantly Orthodox populations.
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