Vatican, Russian Orthodox officials meet
MOSCOW -- The Vatican's foreign minister held talks Friday with Russian Orthodox Church leaders and government officials in an effort to expand ties between the Holy See and Moscow. With hopes that long-standing friction between the Vatican and the Russian church is beginning to ease, Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo met with Metropolitan Kirill, who heads the Russian church's foreign relations department. "Cooperation between representatives of the Holy See and the Russian Orthodox Church already exists and is very good," Lajolo said at the beginning of talks with Kirill. "But of course it can come closer and more direct, first of all, so that the very essence of Christian values becomes more understandable." Pope John Paul II had long sought to visit Russia, and Pope Benedict XVI has continued his outreach to the Orthodox, saying that unifying all Christians was a "fundamental" priority of his pontificate.The talks also focused on the two churches' cooperation in the international sphere. The Russian Orthodox Church praised cooperation with the Vatican working through the European Union and the Council of Europe. Lajolo said the Russian Orthodox Church had made "an unparalleled contribution with its moral and spiritual values" to the process of working out the EU constitution. "We highly appraise the very opportunity for dialogue with you as a high representative of the Vatican," Kirill told the Vatican diplomat."We had a positive experience of cooperation with representatives of the Catholic Church when the draft of the EU Constitution was being prepared." Note EU-Digest: European politicians must make sure that the EU constitution recognizes the multi-cultural and multi-religion composition of its society and that it reflects a politically secular philosophy. Religious groups obviously can be consulted on the EU constitution, but religious doctrine must not be part of the EU constitution.
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