www.byzcath.org Forums News & Events Church News Orthodox Prelate Working for Rome-Moscow Summit

Well, it really is the time for the Patriarch of All West to meet with the patriarch of the biggest eastern church!

There is no patriarch of the west.

Yes there is, whether he should wish to acknowledge it or not. It is only as Patriarch of the West that Orthodox can recognize him at all.

If he should pretend to be something else, or even somehow 'above' the category, he is only kidding himself.

Michael

- The Orthodox Archbishop of Cyprus, Chrysostom II, will meet Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday, June 16. Archbishop Chrysostom hopes to arrange a "summit meeting" between the Pope and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexei II.

http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=3203

15 June 2007, 18:09
No talk of Patriarch meeting Pope now - Moscow Patriarchate
Moscow, June 15, Interfax - The Moscow Patriarchate has announced that the time for a meeting of Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Alexy II and Pope Benedict XVI is not on the agenda of the dialogue between the two Churches.

"The timing of such a meeting has not been discussed in recent years and is not being discussed now," deputy head of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations Vsevolod Chaplin told Interfax on Friday.

On Thursday President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity Cardinal Walter Kasper said that the Pope and Patriarch may meet in the next six months. He added that the chances of the meeting depend on the situation in the world and the situation inside the Russian Orthodox Church.

15 June 2007, 17:01
Speaking of a possible meeting between the Pope and Patriarch Alexy hopefully means assuming that the Vatican is ready to settle problems with Moscow - Andrey Kurayev

Moscow, June 15, Interfax - The Vatican speaking on possibility of a meeting between Pope Benedict XVI and Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia may hopefully mean that the Roman Catholic Church really plans to settle her problems with the Russian Church, the professor of the Moscow Theological Academy Dn. Andrey Kurayev opines.

According to the Western media, a few days ago the president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity Cardinal Walter Kasper said that Alexy II may meet Benedict XVI until the end of the year.

�Cardinal Kasper is a serious person and politician, so I hope he�s serious when he voices things like that. He must be well aware why the Moscow patriarch and the Roman pontiff have not met so far,� Kurayev told Interfax.

The possibility of such a meeting has been discussed for 15 years, he noted, but, as the Moscow patriarch said many times, this sort of event should not be formal �playing embrace for cameras.�

�We�d like to hear the head of the Roman Catholic Church voicing a moral evaluation of what happened and partly still happens in the west of Ukraine. I mean Greek Catholic violence against the Orthodox in the name of the union with the Vatican,� Kurayev added.

To be more precise, he said, we need the pope to disapprove numerous seizures of Orthodox churches and attacks on Orthodox believers by the Greek Catholics in Ukraine.

�We�d like papal evaluation to have a specified addressee so that the Greek Catholics might hear the bishop of Rome�s voice,� he added.

According to the professor, if Cardinal Kasper says that a meeting between the patriarch and the pope may be held soon, it means that �he knows that Benedict XVI is ready to say something like that.�

�Otherwise, it�s nothing but press clamor. But if our natural hopes (concerning the Uniatism - IF) are fulfilled, this meeting may become very fruitful,� Kurayev said.

If the two primates meet, he added, their main objective will be to announce their common conservative Christian views on many publicly discussed issues of today, and �their position is unlikely to be liberal.�
http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=3201

Really, what is the harm of sitting down and talking?

This, in a nutshell, is the entire problem of Rome and Orthodoxy. There is so much lack of forgiveness and understanding - on both sides.

Both the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church have been harassed, bloodied and suppressed by Islam and Communism. Islam and Communism were far worse to the Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church then Orthodoxy and Catholicism have been to each other, and it seems that, by now, we would all realize that, and try to settle misunderstandings and differences peacefully.

Archbishop of Cyprus visit awaited in Russia, not linked with Vatican

MOSCOW. June 20 (Interfax) - Archbishop Chrysostomos II of Cyprus' visit to Russia is in no way linked with Russian Patriarch Alexy II's possible meeting with Pope Benedict XVI, the Moscow Patriarchate said.

"A discussion on the Russian patriarch's meeting with the Pope is not on the agenda of the visit and was not considered when the visit was being prepared," an official with the Moscow patriarchate's External Church Relations Department told Interfax on Wednesday.

Moscow and the Vatican "have no problems that would require mediation," he said.

Father Nikolai Balashov, the Department's secretary for inter- Orthodox relations, told Interfax meanwhile, that Archbishop Chrysostomos' arrival in Moscow "will be the first official visit, traditionally paid by each newly-elected head of a local Orthodox church."

Metropolitan Kirill denies rumors of Patriarch's early meeting with Pope

MOSCOW. June 19 (Interfax) - Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad has denied rumors of Russian Patriarch Alexy II's early meeting with Pope Benedict XVI.

"It's difficult to say who circulated these rumors - perhaps someone who wants to keep them rolling," Metropolitan Kirill, the head of the Moscow Patriarchate's External Church Relations Department, told the press in Moscow on Tuesday.

Metropolitan Kirill also said that the Russian Orthodox Church remains in permanent dialogue with the Roman Catholic Church, discussing important issues with it.

"But Pope Benedict's visit to Moscow is not on the agenda right now," he said.

The Russian church "has never said that a meeting between the Patriarch and the Pope is impossible," he said. "But all of these important events in inter-church relations must be preceded by serious work and we are busy doing it," he said. "Someone has probably gotten ahead of events," Metropolitan Kirill said.