President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity visits the Laura of the Holy Trinity and St. Sergius

On 15 March 2011, Kurt Cardinal Koch, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, currently on his first official visit to the Russian Orthodox Church, visited the Laura of the Holy Trinity and St, Sergius and the Moscow Theological Academy. His Eminence was accompanied by Rev. Milan Zust, a staff member of the PCPCU, and deacon Alexy Dikarev, a staff member of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations.

Cardinal Koch, got acquainted with the history of the Laura, venerated its holy objects and visited the Museum of Church Archeology at the Moscow Theological Academy The high-level representative of the Roman Curia and Archbishop Yevgeniy of Vereya, rector of the Moscow Theological Schools and chairman of the Education Committee, discussed the current state of theological education in the Russian Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Churches, as well as difficulties they encounter in connection with the Bologna system. Archbishop Yevgeniy thanked Cardinal Koch for over 25,000 books donated to the Academy’s library by the Pontifical Universities in Rome and theological faculties of Italy.

That same day Cardinal Koch visited the St. Tikhon’s Orthodox Humanitarian University. The rector, archpriest Vladimir Vorobyov and the faculty told the high guests about the process of education and scholarly projects. Discussed were prospects of cooperation between the University and the educational institutions of the Roman Catholic Church. Cardinal Koch underscored the importance of training qualified persons to develop Orthodox-Catholic dialogue. He answered many questions about the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.