It was anticipated that Patriarch Kirill of Moscow would meet with Pope Francis at the interreligious summit in Kazakhstan in September to talk towards a peaceful conclusion to the six-month-long conflict in Ukraine.
The pope will visit the country of Central Asia for the september 13–15 VII Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions in Nur-Sultan.
According to Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, director of the Russian Church’s Department for External Church Relations, the Russian Orthodox Church will send a delegation to the conference, but Kirill won’t be going.
There had been rumours that the two religious leaders, who had previously met in Havana, Cuba, in 2016, may get together in person, perhaps in Jerusalem, to talk about Kirill’s open support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Metropolitan Anthony told RIA-Novosti, “However, in the spring of this year, to our grave astonishment, the Vatican unilaterally publicly stated that the conference’s planning had been halted and that the meeting itself would not take place.
The Holy See has said that it is prepared to mediate negotiations for peace between the two nations.
In closing his general audience on Wednesday, Pope Francis called for prayers for “the loving Ukrainian people who have been experiencing the horrors of war for six months now” in recognition of the conflict’s six-month anniversary.