Fr Hyacinthe Destivelle, from the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, talks about prospects for the new phase of relationships between Moscow and the Holy See While Churches in the West prepare to celebrate the Epiphany this Sunday, Christians in much of the Eastern Orthodox world, which follows the ancient Julian calendar, are gearing up for their [...]
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, is just returned from a 4-day state visit to Russia, with which he says Pope Francis is “pleased”. In an exclusive interview with Vatican media on Friday, Cardinal Pietro Parolin reviewed his state visit to Russia this week, pointing out its highlights and the issues as yet unresolved between [...]
The Vatican Secretary of State on Monday described the tone of his two-hour meeting with Metropolitan Hilarion, chairman of the Department of External Church Relations of the Patriarchate of Moscow, as “very constructive”. Cardinal Pietro Parolin is on a four-day visit to Russia during which he is scheduled to meet the Russian Patriarch Kirill and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday [...]
May 15, 2017, Monday "What united Orthodox and Catholics in those years was far more important than that which divided them, for they were united by love of Christ.”— Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev, "Foreign Minister" of the Russian Orthodox Church, in his address on May 11 to the "World Summit of Christian Leaders in Defense [...]
May 15, 2017, Monday "I saw that American leaders wanted to cooperate with Russia.”—The influential Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev, the Oxford-educated "Foreign Minister" of the increasingly powerful Russian Orthodox Church, in an interview published today on the website of the Russian Orthodox Moscow Patriarchate. The interview follows Hilarion's four-day trip to Washington D.C. to participate [...]
15 Feb 2017 – By Jonathan Luxmoore OXFORD, England (CNS) — A prominent Catholic ecumenist has urged a better understanding of the Russian Orthodox Church. “Those suspicious of the Russian Orthodox stance should go and see what’s happening,” said Barbara Hallensleben, a consultor with the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. “Of course, nationalist and [...]
July 29, 2016, Friday -- Again, Russia... Earthen Vessels.... "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves." —2 Corinthians 4:7 "As light was the beginning of the first creation; so, in the new creation, the light of the Spirit is his [...]
October 23, 2015, Friday — From Russia to Rome "The word mother can be traced back cleanly to Proto-Indo-European, as can father, brother and sister -- it appears in cognate form in languages like Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, and so forth, and it may go back further." —Discussion of the origin of the word "mother" on an [...]
June 28, 2015, Sunday — Pope-Patriarch Meeting "On Agenda," Hilarion Says Are Rome and Moscow growing closer, despite US-led Western efforts to isolate Russia with recently renewed economic sanctions? A new interview published this morning in Italy suggests strongly that the answer is "Yes." Following a lightning visit three weeks ago (June 10) of Russian president [...]
March 23, 2013, Saturday -- "We are brothers"... in humility "We are brothers."--Pope Francis to Emeritus Pope Benedict today at Castel Gandolfo The Icon of Mary that Pope Francis Gave as a Gift to Emeritus Pope Benedict Today Was... a Russian Icon The present and former Pope met today, in a moment without precedent. And the [...]
