His Holiness Patriarch Kirill meets with President of the Governorate of Vatican City State
On 25 November 2016, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia met with Cardinal Guiseppe Bertello, President of the Governorate of Vatican City State.
Taking part in the meeting, which took place at the Patriarchal residence on Chisty side-street in Moscow, were Archbishop Celestino Migliore, Apostolic Nuncio to the Russian Federation; and on the part of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations (DECR) hieromonk Stefan (Igumnov), DECR secretary for inter-Christian relations, and Rev. Alexy Dikarev, a DECR staff member.
Cardinal Bertello visited Moscow for the opening of the exhibition of masterpieces from the Vatican Museums at the State Tretyakov Gallery on November 25. His Holiness Patriarch Kirill called this event an historical one, noting that “This will give our people an opportunity not only to see the wonderful pieces of art, but to get acquainted through them with the spirituality of Christians in the West because all these masterpieces depict Biblical scenes.’
The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church asked Cardinal Bertello to convey his gratitude to Pope Francis, saying: ‘I know that the exhibition testifies to the high level of relations between the Holy See and Russia, and we hope that these good relations will develop as well as relations between our Churches.’
Cardinal Bertello congratulated His Holiness Patriarch Kirill with his 70th birthday and noted the momentum which the meeting of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill with Pope Francis in Havana last February has given to the development of contacts between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church.