The hearing took place yesterday afternoon, Thursday, July 11. This was the fourth meeting between Francis and the metropolitan head of the Patriarch’s Department of External Ecclesiastical Relations.
Vatican news
Pope Francis welcomed Antonyj, Metropolitan of Volokolamsk, head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, to the audience. The press office of the Holy See said that the meeting took place yesterday afternoon, Thursday, July 11.
The Pope and Antonij met for the first time on August 5, 2022, when the Orthodox representative came to the Vatican for the first time, following his ordination in June of the same year, succeeding Metropolitan Hilarion.
On September 15, 2022, a new meeting took place in Nur-Sultan, the capital of Kazakhstan, when the Pontiff visited to participate in the Congress of Leaders of Traditional Religions.
Yet on May 3, 2023, Antonius arrived in Rome and met with some of the leaders of the Roman Curia and participated in a public audience in St. Peter’s Square. On that occasion he greeted the Pope and stopped to speak with him for a few moments. Francisco, as always in these meetings, kissed him PanagiaA medallion with the image of the Mother of God worn by Orthodox metropolitans on their chests.
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