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The meeting between Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis is scheduled for next year, TASS reports. The head of the Russian Orthodox Church has a great desire to meet with the Pope. According to Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, who heads the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Pope Francis spoke about this more than once.
The first meeting of the world's two largest religious leaders took place five years ago. The priest noted that the date and the place of the meeting are still being discussed.
The Metropolitan is confident that the key issues of the conversation between the pontiff and Patriarch Kirill will not be theological differences between Orthodox and Catholics, but above all how Christians can survive in the modern world, "where they face persecution, violence, and the risk of their lives."
Metropolitan Hilarion's audience with the Pope took place the day before, December 22. The conversation took place "in the spirit of brotherhood", they discussed the topics of interaction between the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches.
Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis previously met in 2016 in the capital of Cuba.
Russkiy Mir
