On October 18, 2018, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Department for External Church Relations, met with the president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unite, Cardinal Kurt Koch, within the framework of the General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops of the Catholic Church.
They exchanged impressions of the Synod’s work, and Cardinal Koch warmly thanked Metropolitan Hilarion for his bright words of greetings addressed to the participants in the plenary session. The cardinal put a special stress on the importance of the joined project for Summer Institutes held annually in cooperation between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Holy See, through which young pastors and students of the two Churches have an opportunity to come to a deeper knowledge of the heritage and spiritual life of the Orthodox and Catholic traditions.
Metropolitan Hilarion introduced Cardinal Koch to the decisions of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church adopted at its meeting on October 15 in Minsk in connection with the uncanonical actions of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in Ukraine. His Eminence set forth in detail the position of the Moscow Patriarchate on this issue and conveyed to the cardinal the text of the Holy Synod.
The sides also discussed the work of the Joint Working Group for Cultural Cooperation between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Holy See and other topics of mutual concern.
DECR Communication Service