The meeting of the new Pope Francis and the head of the Russian Orthodox
Church Patriarch Kirill is most likely to take place in neutral
territory and at a time when Russia will be ready for that, priest Igor
Kovalevsky, general secretary of the Conference of Russia's Catholic
Bishops, believes.
"There is only one condition for that - the readiness of Russian society to receive the Pope. If society is unprepared, one should wait and pray. The meeting can take place then when God wishes that. A meeting in a third country is more probable, not in Russia," he said at a Thursday press conference in Moscow.
He was happy about the election of the new Pope because "the Church demonstrated its openness to all nations, all cultures speaking different languages."
"I would like to believe that he will succeed in performing his evangelical mission, I believe in that. He will have to establish dialogue with different cultures, establish interreligious, inter-citation dialogue, dialogue with European culture, to engage in active missionary work, preach evangelical values. A missioner is needed who will preach the Bible in an understandable language," Kovalevsky said.
He said that the election a new Pope from Russia is hardly likely in the foreseeable future.
"Our Church is very small. We have only four bishops; none of them has been a cardinal. We also feel the Soviet legacy, the Church appeared recently. It is premature to speak of that," Kovalevsky said.