Pope Francis would like to meet with Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia in any country, including Montenegro, with a personal preference for Russia, Leonid Sevastianov, the head of the World Union of Old Believers, said on Friday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th January, 2023) Pope Francis would like to meet with Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia in any country, including Montenegro, with a personal preference for Russia, Leonid Sevastianov, the head of the World Union of Old Believers, said on Friday.
On Thursday, media reported that Montenegrin Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic suggested in October that Pope Francis organize a meeting with Patriarch Kirill in the Montenegrin capital, Podgorica.
"The Pope treats all countries equally close and equally distant. The Pope is not against meeting with Patriarch Kirill in Montenegro or in any other country that will suit Patriarch Kirill. But the Pope's personal preference for such a meeting would be Russia itself. The Pope hopes to receive an invitation from Patriarch Kirill and (Russia's) President (Vladimir) Putin to meet in Moscow and discuss all world problems and find solutions together," Sevastianov, who regularly communicates with the Pope, told Sputnik.
Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill first met in Cuba in February 2016, in a historic meeting marking the first face-to-face between of the heads of the Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church since the 1054 schism. The second meeting was initially scheduled for June 14 in Jerusalem but ended up postponed by mutual agreement to avoid controversies amid the Ukraine crisis.
