Pope to Receive Russian Orthodox Archbishop Hilarion Alfeyev

(17 Sep 09 - RV The head of the Russian Orthodox Church’s dept. of external relations has been on a first official visit to the Vatican this week. Archbishop Hilarion Alfeyev, a renowned theologian, church historian and composer, is to meet with Pope Benedict on Friday at Castelgandolfo. He’s also spent the past two days holding talks with top Vatican officials, including the secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone and the head of the Pontifical council for Christian Unity, Cardinal Walter Kasper to talk about Catholic-Orthodox relations.


Cardinal Kasper told Philippa Hitchen about the topics he discussed with Bishop Hilarion, who has been a key player in ecumenical affairs for the Russian Orthodox church for a number of years.


“Bishop Illarion said from the very beginning that the pontificate of Benedict XVI was very important for them because Pope Benedict XVI is highly regarded by the Russian Orthodox Church for his moral positions, because he does not take into account political correctness and also they hold him in high esteem. My most important impression is that we have improved very much our relations in the last years. We spoke about several points, firstly about dialogue with all of the Orthodox Churches together which will take place in some weeks know in Cyprus, and the Russian Orthodox delegation wants to return to the discussion table they have resolved the problem of Estonia which was between Constantinople and Moscow. We are looking forward to the discussion on the role of the Bishop of Rome in the first millennium in the universal Church, which will be the issue in Cyprus. Then we spoke about our bilateral relations were the proposal was also made to form a kind of bishops conference on a European level”.


Q: “Would you say that this visit marks a definitive end to the tensions over the erection of the Catholic diocese in Moscow?”




“Yes I would agree with this also because the situation in Moscow has very much improved. Also some years ago I made the proposal to have a common working commission, we have overcome the tensions we are in a new situation”.


Q:” Does this mean a possible papal visit to Moscow is much closer?”




No, we only touched on the margins of this point, because of course now the new Patriarch Kirill, who knows Rome very well and has already met with Pope Benedict twice [before his election as patriarch – ed] has to visit with all the other Patriarchs of the Orthodox Churches. This needs time, at the moment its not in discussion.