VATICAN (CNS): Shortly after his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square on May 3, where he urged people to pray the rosary for peace and entrusting the people of Ukraine to Mary’s care, Pope Francis met briefly with Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, director of external relations for the Russian Orthodox Church.
Metropolitan Anthony was the first of the special guests to greet the pope. The two shook hands and the pope reached out and kissed the metropolitan’s encolpion, an icon Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic bishops wear instead of a pectoral cross.
The Russian Orthodox official spoke to the pope briefly before giving him an encolpion of his own.
The Vatican press office did not provide information about Metropolitan Anthony’s visit, but a brief statement on the website of the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church said Metropolitan Anthony travelled to Rome with the blessing of Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, “for a brief working visit.”
He met on May 2 with Claudio Cardinal Gugerotti, the former nuncio to Ukraine who now is prefect of the Dicastery for Eastern Churches.
“During the meeting a wide range of issues of mutual interest were discussed,” the Russian Orthodox website said.
The pope’s prayer requests and his meeting with the Russian Orthodox official came just three days after he told reporters the Vatican has a “mission” underway to promote peace in Ukraine, although he said it was too soon to provide details [Sunday Examiner, May 7]. Ukrainian and Russian officials said their governments were not involved.
Pope Francis had told reporters that since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, his only direct contact with Patriarch Kirill was a 40-minute Zoom call less than a month after the war began.
All other contact with Patriarch Kirill, who strongly supports Vladimir Putin, has been through Metropolitan Anthony, the pope said. “He is a bishop who was a pastor in Rome and knows the situation well, and through him I am in contact with Kirill,” the pope told reporters.
