MP Metropolitan Hilarion Holds Another Ecumenical Meeting with Vatican
July 01, 2015 (Source: https://mospat.ru/en)
On June 26, 2015, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate department for external church relations (DECR) met with the Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin.
They exchanged opinions on a wide range of issues including relations between the Orthodox and the Catholics in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. The DECR chairman shared impressions of his recent visit to Belarus in a delegation that accompanied His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and expressed satisfaction with the positive development of Orthodox-Catholic relations in that country.
They agreed on the need for closer cooperation between the two Churches in seeking a peaceful settlement of the situation in eastern Ukraine and giving aid to those who need it.
Special attention was given to the situation in the Middle East where the blood of Christians
is spilt and the humanitarian disaster has reached an unprecedented scale.
On the same day the DECR chairman met with the President of the Pontifical Council for the Family, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia. They discussed a wide range of issues concerning the common responsibility of the Orthodox and the Catholics in defending the traditional family. Archbishop Vincezo invited Metropolitan Hilarion to take part in the Congress of Families to take place in Philadelphia, USA, in September 2015.
