A group of pilgrims from Chile visits the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate

A GROUP OF PILGRIMS FROM CHILE VISITS THE DEPARTMENT FOR EXTERNAL CHURCH RELATIONS OF THE MOSCOW PATRIARCHATE

A group of Chilean Catholics on pilgrimage to the Orthodox holy places in Russia headed by a Roman Catholic priest visited the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate on September 16, 2002. Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, DECR vice-chairman, received the delegation.

Fr. Vsevolod told the pilgrims about the life of the Russian Orthodox Church and the present Catholic-Orthodox relations. In particular, he regarded the Vatican’s non-fraternal policy towards Orthodox nations as the main reason of the present tension between the two Churches and stressed the willingness of the Russian Orthodox Church to carry on constructive dialogue with the Catholics. In response, the Chilean pilgrims who visited St. Petersburg, Novgorod, Moscow and Sergiev Posad, shared their impressions of the revival of Orthodox life in Russia and expressed their deep interest in Orthodox spirituality and Russian culture along with their wish that all difficulties between our Churches would be solved in the near future. Among those in attendance at the meeting were Rev. Alexander Abramov and Igor Vyzhanov, stuff members of the DECR Secretariat for Inter-Christian Relations.