© Sputnik/ Valery Melnikov
ishtartv.com - sputniknews.com
12.02.2017
Chairman
of the Department of External Church Relations Metropolitan Hilarion said that
the Russian Orthodox Church together with the Vatican will try to
institutionalize the joint work on the monitoring of the issue of Christians’
persecutions in the Middle East and other regions.
MOSCOW
(Sputnik) — The Russian Orthodox Church plans to strengthen its
cooperation with Vatican on the issue of monitoring persecution
of Christians in the Middle East and other regions, chairman
of the Department of External Church Relations Metropolitan Hilarion
said on Sunday.
"We
keep in touch on this issue, and I believe today during the
talks with [president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting
Christian Unity] Cardinal Koch we will try to institutionalize the joint
work we are doing already on the monitoring of the issue
of Christians’ persecutions in the Middle East and other regions. I
believe it is the most important thing we can do together right now. And we
will try to better organize the basis of this work," Hilarion
said.
Earlier
on Sunday, the metropolitan and the cardinal participated in an event
organized by Switzerland’s University of Freiburg on the
occasion of the first anniversary of the meeting
between Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill and Pope Francis
on Cuba.
The
meeting between the patriarch and the pope took place in Havana
on February 12 and lasted around two hours. The heads
of churches addressed the whole world and called on the international
community to defend the Christians of Syria and Iraq.
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