Pope Francis to Meet Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill During Kazakhstan Visit

Pope Francis plans to meet Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill during his Sept. 13-15 visit to Kazakhstan, according to Vatican News reporting. The pope told Univision, the Spanish-language network, in an interview that aired in the United States on July 11 that he intended to hold the meeting during the trip. He said he has “a good relationship” with Patriarch Kirill, who has strongly supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The main purpose of the pope’s visit is to attend the Congress of World and Traditional Religions, an interreligious gathering that will also serve as the setting for the meeting. The congress is held every three years and was initiated by Kazakhstan’s first president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, to promote dialogue among religions. The congress’s website states that one of its objectives is to prevent “the use of religious feelings of people for the escalation of conflicts and hostilities.”

Speaking to Univision, the pope described the patriarch’s stance on the war as shaped in part by his homeland. “It is evident that his position is conditioned by his homeland in some way; which is not to say that he is an indecent man,” he said. “No; God knows each person’s moral responsibilities in the depth of their hearts.”

Patriarch Kirill’s public backing of the war, including his description of it as a defense against Western immorality, has caused divisions within the Russian Orthodox Church and strained its relations with the Catholic Church. The pope has also spoken directly to the patriarch about his role. In an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, published May 3, Pope Francis said that during a Zoom meeting in mid-March he told the patriarch, “Brother, we are not clerics of the state, we cannot use the language of politics, but of Jesus.” In the same interview he said, “The patriarch cannot turn himself into Putin’s altar boy.”

The Moscow Patriarchate responded critically on May 4. “Pope Francis chose an incorrect tone to convey the content of this conversation,” the patriarchate said. It added that “such statements are unlikely to contribute to the establishment of a constructive dialogue between the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches, which is especially necessary at the present time.”

Bishop Adelio Dell’Oro of Karaganda, Kazakhstan, told SIR, the news agency of the Italian bishops’ conference, in an interview published July 1, that a meeting in Kazakhstan would carry significance. “It would be beautiful if that meeting would happen here and that there would be an understanding that religion is not at the service of the state, as Pope Francis told the patriarch during his online meeting with him,” he said. He also said that spiritual leaders should affirm “that religion is a factor of unity and reconciliation,” and that Christians in particular should recognize, “beyond all differences and divisions,” that Jesus “is the one who unites us at the root,” a point that echoes the call for believers to be one (John 17:21).

Some Vatican officials have been more openly critical. Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, said in an interview published in late June with the German newspaper Die Tagespost that Patriarch Kirill’s support of the invasion for “pseudo-religious reasons” amounted to “heresy.” Cardinal Koch also said he was grateful that Pope Francis had canceled a proposed meeting with the patriarch in Jerusalem. A meeting between the two while “acts of war are still taking place,” he said, would “be exposed to serious misunderstandings.” “This is because it could be misunderstood as the pope’s support of the patriarch’s position, which would badly damage the pope’s moral authority,” Cardinal Koch said.

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