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On 29 July 2016, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, who is visiting Slovenia with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, took part, together with Archbishop Stanislav Zore of Ljubljana (Roman Catholic Church), Metropolitan Porfirije of Zagreb-Ljubljana (Serbian Orthodox Church) and the delegations accompanying them, in the talks at the palace of archbishops of Ljubljana.

Prior to the meeting, Archbishop Stanislav Zore warmly greeted Metropolitan Hilarion and showed him around the Catholic Cathedral of St Nicholas the Wonderworker in Ljubljana.

In his address to the participants in the meeting, the DECR chairman told about cooperation between the Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church after the meeting of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and Pope Francis of Rome held in Havana on February 12. As Metropolitan Hilarion noted, the Orthodox-Catholic cooperation aimed at defending Christians from persecutions in the Middle East and some African countries has acquired particular importance. Thus, as the Russian hierarch said, Christian population in a number of African countries is subjected by extremists to real genocide. Among other topics, the DECR chairman raised the issue of Unia, having noted the destructive position of the leadership of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church hampering the dialogue between Christians of the East and the West.

At the conclusion of the meeting, the archpastors signed a joint press statement.

Earlier that day Metropolitan Hilarion met with Archbishop Juliusz Janusz of Caprulae, Apostolic Nuncio in Slovenia, at the Embassy of the Holy See in Ljubljana. The hierarchs noted the fruitful development of relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church.

DECR Communication Service