Metropolitan Hilarion meets with the Order of Malta Secretary-General for International Relations

On October 3, 2016, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s department for external church relations, met with the diplomatic counsellor to the Grand Chancellor of the Sovereign Order of Malta and the Order’s secretary-general for international relations, Stefano Ronca, at the Ss Cyril and Methodius Institute of Post-Graduate Studies (CMI).

Participating in the meeting from the ROC side were also Hieromonk Ioann (Kopeikin), CMI pro-rector for training, and Hierodeacon Roman (Kiselev), DECR secretariat for the far abroad. From the side of the Order of Malta there were Mauro Casinguini, director of the Order’s department for civil protection, Ivo Graziani, chief of the cabinet of the Grand Hospitalier, and Gianfranco Facco-Bonetti, representative of the Order in Russia.

The sides discussed the present state of relations between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Order of Malta, which, while belonging to the Roman Catholic Church, enjoys the rights of a sovereign state, as well as questions concerning humanitarian and cultural cooperation and the problelm of Christianophobia and discrimination against Christians.

DECR Communication Service