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Eugene

(62,659 posts)
Thu Jun 6, 2019, 11:29 PM Jun 2019

Pope to meet Putin before Vatican Ukraine meeting

Source: Associated Press

Pope to meet Putin before Vatican Ukraine meeting

By NICOLE WINFIELD and NATALIYA VASILYEVA
June 6, 2019

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Vatican next month, a day before Catholic leaders from Ukraine gather at the Holy See to discuss the continuing conflict there and the fallout from the schism between the Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox Churches.

The Vatican confirmed the July 4 audience Thursday. It will be the third meeting between Francis and Putin.

Francis and Moscow Patriarch Kirill sat down for talks in 2016 in the first meeting of the heads of both churches in a century. That summit, in Cuba, was seen as a possible step toward a papal visit to Russia. Not a single pope has ever set foot in Russia.

Asked if Putin would extend an invitation for Francis to visit Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Thursday that it was too early to say.

Last month, the Vatican announced that Francis had invited the leadership of Ukraine’s Greek Catholic Church, a minority eastern rite church loyal to the pope, for meetings July 5-6. The aim, it said, was to lend support “in the delicate situation in which Ukraine finds itself.”

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Read more: https://apnews.com/d5c23d1d626c4844885da51b406850cd
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