Vatican welcomes new Serbian Orthodox leader’s proposal to invite Pope

(January 29, 2010) The Holy See’s spokesman has welcomed a proposal by the new Serbian Orthodox Church head for a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI as "very encouraging." Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican press office, made the remark commenting on the proposal that Serbian Orthodox Patriarch Irinej Gavrilovic made at a press conference in Belgrade on Thursday. The 80-year-old patriarch, elected on Feb. 22, suggested the possibility of organizing an ecumenical event in 2013 with the Pope in Nis, Serbia, where the first Christian emperor of the Roman empire, Constantine was born. The event would commemorate the 1,700th anniversary of Constantine’s Edict of Milan, which ended anti-Christian persecution in the empire. Father Lombardi told the Belgrade paper Blic that this is a suggestion "we welcome with great joy." The patriarch said that a papal visit "could perhaps be the occasion for our two Churches to establish a first contact, and with a bit of luck, to continue this contact and set out on a new path." However, Fr. Lombardi noted that it is too early to talk about a papal visit to Serbia for the occasion, but he assured that the Holy See was following the situation with great interest.