VATICAN (Agencies): The Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches should join efforts to promote peace before threats of a “major global armed conflict,” Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, told Matteo Cardinal Zuppi, Pope Francis’ peace envoy to Ukraine and Russia during a meeting on June 29, CNS reported.
According to a press release from the Russian Orthodox Church, the patriarch said the Churches have a role in preventing “the negative development of political conditions” and working for peace and justice.
“At the time when great problems have emerged in the relations between Russia and the West, when we encounter both a great tension in the sphere of political relations and real threats of the emergence of a major global armed conflict, it is very important that all the forces interested in preservation of peace and justice should unite to prevent such feasible pace of events,” Patriarch Kirill told the cardinal, according to the statement CNS reported.
“It is very important that in this very difficult time Christian communities in East and West should participate in the process of reconciliation,” the statement said.
The Russian patriarch has repeatedly and publicly justified and supported Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Cardinal Zuppi reportedly stressed the need for increased dialogue between Churches during times of conflict “to understand what the Lord asks us to do.”
the humanitarian aspect of the initiative was strongly emphasised, as well as the urgency to be able to attain that peace that is highly desired
Vatican News reported that the “the humanitarian aspect of the initiative was strongly emphasised, as well as the urgency to be able to attain that peace that is highly desired.”
Cardinal Zuppi also met with the Bishops of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Russia, with whom, together with a large group of priests and in the presence of Ambassadors and Representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he presided over a solemn concelebration in the Cathedral of the Archdiocese of the Mother of God, in Moscow.
This was an opportunity to convey the Holy Father’s closeness, his remembrance of them, and prayers for the Catholic community Vatican News reported.
Cardinal Zuppi also met with Yury Ushakov, a Kremlin foreign policy adviser.
Speaking to reporters the following day, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the “the meeting yielded no specific agreement, and the dialogue may continue if needed,” according to TASS, the Russian state news agency, CNS reported.
Archbishop Paolo Pezzi of Moscow said the meeting “went positively” and that the cardinal and the adviser primarily discussed issues related to refugees, TASS reported.
The archbishop had said humanitarian issues were also scheduled to be discussed during cardinal’s June 29 meeting with Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, who has been accused by the International Criminal Court of aiding the abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia.
Cardinal Zuppi arrived in Moscow June 27 and was scheduled to return to Italy June 30; the evening before his departure, he presided at Mass in Moscow’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception and met with members of the Russian bishop’s conference and the local Catholic community.
