Metropolitan Kirill visits Italy

METROPOLITAN KIRILL VISITS ITALY

The annual international symposium on various aspects of the history of the Russian Orthodox Church took place on September 16-18, 1999, at the Bose monastery in Piemont, North Italy. This time the theme was “The Russian Orthodox Church Since 1943 to This Day”.

A delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church participated in the work of the Symposium. It was led by Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations. The delegation included Archbishop Herman of Volgograd and Kamyshin, Hieromonk Hilarion, DECR secretary for inter-Christian relations, and Rev. Vladimir Kuchumov, rector of the Moscow Patriarchate Representation in Bari. The conference was attended by prominent experts in the history of the Church, theologians and historians of culture.

On September 16, Metropolitan Kirill made a presentation on the Russian Orthodox Church on the Eve of the Third Millennium, in which he made an in-depth analysis of the past and present history of the Russian Orthodox Church. He spoke in detail on the problems of internal church life and outlined major thrusts in its further development. Metropolitan Kirill’s presentation was met with a lively response from the participants in the conference and provoked a wide response in the Italian mass media.

Metropolitan Kirill visited the Roman Catholic dioceses of Milan, Trento and Verona.

On September 15, while in Milan, Metropolitan Kirill met with Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, Archbishop of Milan. They discussed in particular the state of the inter-Christian dialogue on the eve of the 2000th anniversary of the Coming of Christ the Savior to the world. Metropolitan Kirill visited the Basilica of St. Ambrose of Milan where the relics of this great saint of the undivided Church rest and talked to the Russian Orthodox community in Milan.

On September 17, while in Bose, Metropolitan Kirill had a prolonged talk with His Eminence Severino Poletto, Archbishop of Turin. The archbishop gave His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia and Metropolitan Kirill two facsimiles of the Holy Shroud of Christ the Savior preserved at the cathedral in Turin.

On September 18, the chairman of the Department for External Church Relations visited Trento to address the participants in the general meeting of the Trent diocese and to meet His Eminence Luigi Bressan, Archbishop of Trento. On the same day Metropolitan Kirill visited the Russian Orthodox church in Merano, Bolzano diocese, and talked there to representatives of the Orthodox community.

In the evening of September 18, Metropolitan Kirill was in Verona. He had meetings with Bishop Flavio Roberto Carraro of Verona and representatives of the Orthodox community in the city.