Metropolitan Kirill meets President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace Renato Cardinal Martino

On 29 November 2005, Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad met with President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace Renato Cardinal Martino at the premises of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate. Cardinal Martino came to Russia to take part in the presentation of the Russian edition of the ‘Compendium of the Social Doctrine’ of the Roman Catholic Church.

Discussed were problems and challenges that contemporary society brings to the Christian word. The participants noted that positions of both churches on many aspects of social life, international relations and standards of social morals and ethics coincide. Also discussed were issues of practical cooperation between the Russian Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Churches in the sphere of defending and promoting traditional Christian values.

Taking part in the meeting were representative of the Holy See in the Russian Federation Archbishop Antoni Mennini, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace Bishop Gianpaolo Crepaldi, DECR MP secretary for interchristian relations Rev.Igor Vyzhanov, director of the Catholic charity organization ‘Caritas Russia’ Rev. Alexander Petszhik, and DECR MP staff members Rev.Mikhail Prokopenko, Rev.Alexander Vasyutin and Alexei V.Dolgov.