Russian President Vladimir Putin to meet Pope Benedict XVI on March 13

(23 Feb. 2007) : Vatican Information Service confirmed on Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican on March 13. This will be Mr Putin’s first visit to the Vatican since Pope Benedict XVI’s election. The Russian President did meet John Paul II in 2000 and 2003, also in the Vatican, but unlike his predecessors Mikhail Gorbachev and Borris Yeltsin, he did not extend an invitation to the Pope to visit Moscow.

What the Russian leader will do in his meeting with Benedict XVI will depend largely on how the Russians will view improved relations between Catholics and the Moscow Patriarchate, which remains the real obstacle to any papal visit to Russia. In the almost two years since Pope Benedict’s pontificate began, relations between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Vatican have warmed considerably after the long frost that prevailed during Pope John Paul II’s tenure.

This situation was largely due to Orthodox accusations against the Catholic Church of proselytising, accusations which still persist, even though not as intensely as before. In Orthodox circles unconfirmed reports suggest that a Patriarchate official might be part of Putin’s delegation. Putin, one of the few foreign heads of state not to attend John Paul II’s funeral, expressed in his message of best wishes to the newly-elected Pope a desire to “pursue a constructive political dialogue” with the Vatican. Baptised in the Orthodox faith, the Russian president has said that he is a man who can serve as mediator between the Churches.