Pope to visit Kazakhstan, may meet Russian Orthodox patriarch

VATICAN CITY, Aug 1 (Reuters) – Pope Francis will attend a gathering of non secular leaders in Kazakhstan in September, the Vatican mentioned on Monday, a gathering the place he has mentioned beforehand he hoped to satisfy with the Russian Orthodox patriarch, who backs the warfare in Ukraine.

Francis is about to be within the capital Nur-Sultan from Sept. 13-15 to attend the VII Congress of Leaders of World and Conventional Religions, the Vatican mentioned.

The pope has mentioned in a number of latest interviews that he hopes to satisfy within the Kazakh capital with patriarch Kirill, who has given his full-throated backing to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which started on Feb. 24.

Francis had deliberate to satisfy Kirill on June 14 in Jerusalem however cancelled that assembly on the recommendation of Vatican diplomats.

If the September assembly takes place, it will be solely their second after they met in Cuba in 2016. The latter was the primary such assembly between a pope and a frontrunner of the Russian Orthodox Church for the reason that Nice Schism in 1054.

The Vatican assertion asserting the journey didn’t point out Kirill. It was launched in Russian, Italian and English. Kazakh and Russian are the nation’s two official languages.

The Ukraine warfare has prompted a rift between the Vatican and the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC).

In an interview revealed in Might in an Italian newspaper, Francis mentioned Kirill “can not develop into Putin’s altar boy”. The ROC later chided the pope over the comment.

Kirill’s place has additionally splintered the worldwide Orthodox Church and unleashed an inside rise up which has led to the severing of ties by some native Orthodox Church buildings with the ROC.

In June, Britain sanctioned Kirill for “his distinguished assist of Russian navy aggression in Ukraine”. learn extra

Hungary blocked an EU try and sanction him. learn extra

Russian President Vladimir Putin, a member of the ROC, has described Moscow’s actions in Ukraine as a “particular navy operation” geared toward demilitarising and “denazifying” the nation.

The pope has rejected such terminology. He has a number of occasions implicitly accused Russia of “armed conquest, expansionism and imperialism” in Ukraine, and has known as the battle a “merciless and mindless warfare of aggression”. learn extra

In an interview with Reuters final month, Francis mentioned he needed to go to the Ukraine capital Kyiv after his return from Canada two days in the past, but additionally needed to go to Moscow to promoted peace. learn extra

The late Pope John Paul II visited the Kazakh capital in 2001, when it was often called Astana.

Reporting by Philip Pullella; Modifying by Kirsten Donovan and Bernadette Baum

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