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On 29 September 2011, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations (DECR), currently on an official visit to Rome with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, met with the Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.

Metropolitan Hilarion conveyed greetings from Patriarch Kirill to Cardinal Bertone and expressed his satisfaction with the positive dynamics of cooperation between the Holy See and the Russian Orthodox Church.

The hierarchs concurred in the view that the Orthodox and the Catholics, having a common outlook toward public and personal morality, are called to defend traditional Christian values through common efforts and to hold out against various manifestations of Christianophobia.

Also taking part in the meeting were archpriest Dmitry Sizonenko, DECR secretary for Inter-Christian relations; hieromonk Antoniy (Sevryuk), rector of the stavropegic Church of St. Catherine in Rome and secretary of the Moscow Patriarchate parishes in Italy; archpriest Igor Vyzhanov, a cleric of St. Catherine’s church; and hierodeacon Ioann (Kopeikin), assistant to the DECR chairman.