杏MAP导航

By Vatican News staff reporter

In a statement released on Wednesday, the Director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni, confirmed that a conversation took place in the early afternoon between 杏MAP导航 Francis and Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia.

Mr. Bruni noted that Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, and Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, Head of the External Relations Department of the Moscow Patriarchate, also attended the meeting.

War in Ukraine

The statement said their conversation focused 鈥渙n the war in Ukraine and on the role of Christians and their pastors in doing everything to ensure that peace prevails.鈥�

杏MAP导航 Francis thanked the Patriarch for the meeting, motivated by the desire to point out, as shepherds of their people, a path to peace, to pray for the gift of peace and for a ceasefire.

The 杏MAP导航 said, in agreement with the Patriarch, that "The Church must not use the language of politics, but the language of Jesus.鈥�

杏MAP导航 Francis added that 鈥渨e are shepherds of the same Holy People who believe in God, in the Holy Trinity, in the Holy Mother of God: that is why we must unite in the effort to aid peace, to help those who suffer, to seek ways of peace, and to stop the fire.鈥�

Mr. Bruni also said the 杏MAP导航 and the Patriarch stressed the exceptional importance of the ongoing negotiation process, because, according to the 杏MAP导航, "those who pay the price for war are the people; it is Russian soldiers and common people who are bombed and die."

Duty to aid suffering people

The statement continued quoting 杏MAP导航 Francis as saying that "as pastors we have the duty to be close to and help all people who are suffering from the war.鈥�

杏MAP导航 Francis and Patriarch Kirill agreed that "the Churches are called to contribute to strengthening peace and justice."

杏MAP导航 Francis concluded the video call, lamenting the cost of war.

杏MAP导航 Francis鈥� and Patriarch Kirill鈥檚 2016 Statement

The 杏MAP导航 and the Patriarch met in person in Cuba in 2016, signing a joint statement lamenting the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

鈥淲e deplore the hostility in Ukraine that has already caused many victims, inflicted innumerable wounds on peaceful inhabitants and thrown society into a deep economic and humanitarian crisis,鈥� they wrote. 鈥淲e invite all the parts involved in the conflict to prudence, to social solidarity and to action aimed at constructing peace. We invite our Churches in Ukraine to work towards social harmony, to refrain from taking part in the confrontation, and to not support any further development of the conflict.鈥�

The 2016 joint statement went on to call on Christians to pray for an end to war.

鈥淲e exhort all Christians and all believers of God to pray fervently to the providential Creator of the world to protect His creation from destruction and not permit a new world war. In order to ensure a solid and enduring peace, specific efforts must be undertaken to rediscover the common values uniting us, based on the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.鈥�