FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE MEETING BETWEEN POPE FRANCIS AND PATRIARCH KIRILL

 

Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity

To mark the fifth anniversary of the historical meeting in Havana in 2016 between Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill, an online conference has been organized for 12 February 2021 at 10.00 am on the theme “The Church and the Pandemic: Challenges and Perspectives”. The initiative has been jointly organized by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the  Department for External Church Affairs of the Moscow Patriarchate. The conference will include two introductory papers by Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of the Council, and Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, President of the Department. Bishop Panteleimon, President of the Synodal Department of the Synodal Department for Church Charity and Social Ministry of the Moscow Patriarchate, and Archbishop Salvatore Fisichella, President of the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization, will present their papers following the introduction.

Since the meeting in 2016, the event has been commemorated on 12 February jointly by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Department for External Church Affairs of the Moscow Patriarchate, each year in a different place. The first was held in 2017 in Fribourg, Switzerland, followed in 2018 in Vienna on the situation of Christians in the Middle East, in 2019 in Moscow on end of life issues, and in 2020 in Rome on the theme "The Saints - Signs and Seeds of Unity". This year the event is in Moscow on the theme “The Church and the Pandemic: Challenges and Perspectives”.

The link for the online event will be available here on 12 February at 10.00 am.