Pope and Russian President
want stronger ties
VATICAN CITY, Feb. 17 (AP) – Pope Benedict XVI and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev met at the Vatican on Thursday, stressing the need for better ties and the promotion of shared Christian values, the Holy See said.
"I should learn Russian," the German-born Benedict said following the half-hour private talk, although there was no indication that Benedict would go to Russia.
Long-running tensions in Russia between Orthodox faithful and Catholics prevented Benedict's predecessor John Paul II from achieving his dream of a Russian pilgrimage.
The Holy See's statement sidestepped any mention of the tensions between Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches in Russia, including over property issues, and Orthodox claims that the Catholics are trying to poach converts from the Orthodox's ranks. Instead the Vatican stressed the "positive contribution that inter-religious dialogue can make to society."
Greeting Medvedev, Benedict welcomed him to "a very important meeting" Thursday.
The Vatican said both sides "expressed their pleasure at the good state of bilateral relations and highlighted their desire to strengthen them."
It noted the cooperation between them "in the promotion of specifically human and Christian values, and in the cultural and social field."
The Vatican denies accusations that it aggressively proselytizes in Russia.
After Medvedev's previous talks with Benedict in late 2009, the Vatican and Russia upgraded their diplomatic relations to full-fledged ties.
After nearly a half-century of hostility between the Vatican and the Kremlin during the Cold War, a major breakthrough came when former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev met with the Polish-born John Paul in 1989, just after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
[After that, however, Russian Orthodox Church leaders used long-standing russian-Polish enmity to affect their attitude towars John Paul II. They claimed he fielded Polish missionaries to post-Soviet Russia in order to proselytize the Rusian Orthodox faithl to Catholicism, and were suspcious of Catholic influence in teh Ukraine, which adjoins Poland and has a splintered Orthodox membership which Moscow has been meaning to unite under its influence.]
Medvedev presents the Pope with
the latest volume of Orthodox Encyclopedia
VATICAN CITY, February 17 (Itar-Tass) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev made an official visit to the Vatican City on Thursday to meet Pope Benedict XVI.
The Medvedevs were welcomed by Swiss Guards, the Pope's personal bodyguard, at the entrances to the Apostolic Palace, in the Courtyard of St Damazo.
Accompanied by Archbishop James Michael Harvey, Dmitry and Svetlana Medvedevs and members of the Russian delegation passed through the suite of rooms of the Apostolic Palace to be welcomed by Benedict in the so-called Small Throne Room (Sala Tronetta).
Medvedev and Benedict XVI talked in the Pope's library about half an hour.
After the talk, the Pontiff met with the Russian president’s spouse and members of the Russian delegation. The Russian president and the Pope exchanged presents.
Medvedev presented Benedict XVI the latest volume of the Orthodox Encyclopaedia. Other books of the Encyclopaedia were earlier presented by Vladimir Putin, who visited the Pope when he was President of Russia. Medvedev said the work on the Encyclopedia continued.
Benedict XVI commented with a smile that unfortunately, he had no time to learn the Russian language.
In addition, Medvedev also presented the Pope with an enamel painting of the Moscow Kremlin panorama. “Do you live here?” Benedict XVI asked, as he admired the Kremlin architecture. “No, I only work there,” the President said.
In turn, the Pope presented Medvedev with a mosaic panel of St Peter’s Basilica.
After the meeting with the Pope, Medvedev had a brief talk with Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.
This was Medvedev’s first official visit to the Vatican City after Russia and the Holy See established full-fledged diplomatic relations in December 2009 when Medvedev arrived in the Vatican City on a working visit.
ITAR-TASS also offers this sidebar:
Russian video on Benedict XVI given
to Vatican before Medvedev's visit
VATICAN CITY, February 17 (Itar-Tass) - A new film from the Formula of Power series, titled 'Pope Benedict XVI', was passed to Vatican City through diplomatic channels, in connection with the Thursday meeting between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Pope Benedict XVI.
The film, devoted to the Pope and Vatican City State, is a documentary that was a joint project by Itar-Tass and the VGTRK television company.
In Russia, it was run on Vesti-24 news channel first in a 24-minute version, and then in an expanded 54-minute version on the occasion of Catholic Christmas on December 25, 2011.
The documentary is about Vatican City's history and its present, and includes by the Pope, influential hierarchs, members of the Roman Curia and a comment by Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, "the foreign minister" of the Russian Orthodox Church.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 18/02/2011 12:41]