Pope commends Orthodox-Catholic meeting in Poland

(August 20, 2012) Pope Benedict XVI has hailed as an important step a meeting in Poland between the leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church and Poland's Catholic Church. Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church and Archbishop Jozef Michalik of Przemyśl, the president of the Polish Catholic bishops conference signed a common declaration in Warsaw on Friday appealing to their respective nations to forgive each other for past historical wrongs. Speaking to Polish pilgrims during Sunday’s midday ‘Angelus’ prayer at his summer residence of Castel Gandolfo near Rome, Pope Benedict praised the two leaders saying both sides expressed the desire to help brotherly union grow and to collaborate in spreading the Gospel values in today’s world. “This is an important event, which generates hope for the future,” the Pope added. The sources of bitterness between the two peoples are many, and include Polish resentment over Moscow's control of Poland during the communist era.