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On 26 October 2009, the Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations Archbishop Hilarion of Volokolamsk stopped at the capital of Austria on his way to Kosovo and Metochia and met with the head of the Vienna archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church Cardinal Christoph Schonborn at the Archbishop’s Palace.

They discussed the results of the meeting of the Joint International Commission for the Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church that took place in Cyprus on 17-23 October 2009.

The hierarchs agreed that a closer cooperation between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches in defense of Christian moral and spiritual values is needed. Archbishop Hilarion pointed at the advisability of cooperation no matter what results the theological dialogue could produce as the point at issue is that representatives of traditional Christianity in Europe have a task of defending the fundamental principles of the order of Christian social medium.”

Archbishop Hilarion and Cardinal Schonborn also discussed the problem of demographical crisis in Europe, and the relations between Christianity and Islam.