Pope will not meet Russian Orthodox patriarch during Kazakh visit -RIA

FILE PHOTO – Pope Francis holds the weekly normal viewers on the Vatican, August 24, 2022. Vatican Media/Handout by way of REUTERS

Aug 24 (Reuters) – (This Aug 24 story corrects paragraphs 1 and three to clarify Russian Patriarch won’t attend Kazakhstan congress)

Pope Francis and the pinnacle of the Russian Orthodox church, who backs the conflict in Ukraine, won’t meet at a gathering of non secular leaders in Kazakhstan subsequent month, RIA information company cited a senior Orthodox official as saying on Wednesday.

Francis, as a result of be within the capital Nur-Sultan from Sept. 13-15 to attend the VII Congress of Leaders of World and Conventional Religions, has mentioned in a number of current interviews he hoped to satisfy with Patriarch Kirill when in Kazakhstan. learn extra

However Bishop Anthony, the Russian church’s second strongest bishop, instructed RIA that the patriarch wouldn’t attend the occasion. He didn’t say why not, however mentioned Kirill can be represented as a substitute by an official delegation.

Anthony mentioned any assembly between the 2 leaders should be a significant occasion in its personal proper, not on the sidelines of one other gathering.

“It should be an impartial occasion by advantage of its significance,” mentioned Anthony, accountable for overseas relations, who held talks with Francis in early August. Francis has met Kirill as soon as earlier than, in Cuba in 2016.

Kirill, an in depth ally of President Vladimir Putin, has given enthusiastic backing to the invasion of Ukraine.

In June, Francis implicitly accused Russia of “armed conquest, expansionism and imperialism” in Ukraine. learn extra

Reporting by Reuters

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