DECR chairman meets with Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs

On 7 March 2017, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, met with Mr. Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Hungary on his initiative. Attending the talk, which took place at the United Nations Office at Geneva, was archpriest Mikhail Gundayev, representative of the Russian Orthodox Church to the World Council of Churches and international institutions.

Problems pertaining to the protection of Christians in different regions of the world, especially in the Middle East, were discussed, as well as possibilities of potential cooperation in this field. Metropolitan Hilarion underscored the important fact that these problems are being considered at the high international level.

Minister Szijjártó mentioned good relations between the Hungarian authorities and the diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church in Hungary and the government’s willingness to finance the restoration of the main cathedral of the Russian Church in Budapest.

Metropolitan Hilarion shared his reminiscences of the years when he was the administrator of the Hungarian diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church.