Metropolitan Kirill met with Pope Benedict XVI

On May 18, 2006, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI met with Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations. Metropolitan Kirill conveyed to the primate of the Roman Catholic Church a greeting from His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia, which was accepted with gratitude. In response, Pope Benedict XVI asked the metropolitan to convey to the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church the best wishes for his ministry.

Metropolitan Kirill set out for Pope Benedict XVI the contents of the World Russian People’s Council’s declaration on human rights and dignity and shared with him his impressions of the Conference ‘To Give a Soul to Europe. The Mission and Responsibility of the Church’ (Vienna, May 3-5, 2006) held by the Russian Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Churches to discuss human rights, dignity and personal moral responsibility.

The meeting established a similarity of the two Churches’ views of this range of issues and their wish to continue joint work for drafting a document to set forth in full measure the position of the Roman Catholic and the Russian Orthodox Churches in this domain. It was agreed that the elaboration of a common stand on bioethics would also be beneficial. It was deemed necessary to join the efforts of the two Churches in protecting and asserting the institution of family and the value of human life.