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On 22 December 2017, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations (DECR), met with H.E. Paulo Vizeu Pinheiro, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Portuguese Republic to the Russian Federation.

They were joined in the meeting, which took place at the DECR premises, by Archpriest Sergy Zvonarev, DECR secretary for far abroad countries.

Metropolitan Hilarion warmly greeted the guest at the Synodal department in charge of external contacts of the Russian Orthodox Church and greeted Ambassador Pinheiro with his appointment to Russia.

The newly-appointed ambassador thanked Metropolitan Hilarion for warm welcome and spoke about

his work in Moscow in the late 1990s-the early 2000s as a political counselor of the Embassy of Portugal.

Metropolitan Hilarion told the guest about the present-day life of the Russian Orthodox Church and about the multinational parishes of the Moscow Patriarchate in Portugal. He spoke also about the celebration of the centenary of the re-establishment of the Patriarchate in the Russian Church at the Local Council of 1917-18, and the consequences of the revolutionary events.

The DECR chairman wished Ambassador Pinheiro God’s aid in his responsible work and expressed willingness to develop cooperation with the Portuguese diplomatic mission in Moscow.