Pope Leo XIV met for the first time with Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk of the Russian Orthodox Church
On July 26, Pope Leo XIV held the first meeting since his accession to the Apostolic Throne with Metropolitan Antony Volokolamsky, one of the leading hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church. As reported Reuters, the conversation concerned, in particular, the war in Ukraine and the general state of dialogue between the Catholic and Orthodox churches.
According to the Vatican, in the morning the pontiff received Metropolitan Anthony, the head of the Department of External Church Relations of the Russian Orthodox Church, as well as five other high-ranking representatives of the clergy.
The Russian Orthodox Church stated in its official statement:
“During the conversation, a number of issues were raised regarding the state of the Orthodox-Catholic dialogue, as well as current conflicts in the world, in particular in Ukraine and the Middle East.”
This meeting can be seen as an attempt to renew contacts between the two churches, whose interaction has become much more complicated since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia in 2022. At the same time, the very fact of dialogue against the background of the ongoing war attracts the attention of the international community and observers of inter-church relations.
