EUROPE/GERMANY - HEAD OF DELEGATION FROM MOSCOW PATRIARCHATE AT “PEOPLE AND RELIGIONS MEETING” SAYS: “IT IS TIME TO CHANGE THE PRESENT SITUATION OF DIFFICULTY BETWEEN MOSCOW AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH”

Aachen (Fides Service) – “This is a time in which dialogue, over and above the misunderstandings of the past, is possible” said Metropolita Kyrill of Smolensk and Kalilinigrad, head of the delegation from the Orthodox Patriarchate of Moscow, during a debate on the theme “Catholics and Orthodox: the challenge of ecumenism” on September 9 at the interreligious Meeting in Aachen, Germany organised by S. Egidio Community. The debating panel included also Catholic cardinals Kasper and Etchegaray, Ignatius IV Hazim Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and the Orient, and Bishop Vincenzo Paglia, of S. Egidio. “People always say the Orthodox will not dialogue, but if this were so – Kyrill said – I would not be here”. He added “It is time to change the present difficult situation between Moscow and the Catholic Church. Moscow is ready to talk: the arguments are on the table. Once these matters have been settled, a meeting between the Pope and the Patriarch of Moscow will at last turn the difficult page of the past.” SL (Fides Service 9/9/2003 EM lines 12 Words: 162)