President Vladimir Putin says there is a “trusting and constructive dialogue” between Russia and the Holy See as he met with the Vatican’s top diplomat to discuss international crises including Syria and the plight of Christians in the Middle East.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin met the president this afternoon at his residence in Sochi, a city on the shores of the Black Sea, for discussions which the Kremlin said would focus on the “key issues” of Russia-Vatican relations along with major international issues.
The cardinal, who is the Holy See’s Secretary of State, is the highest ranking Vatican figure to visit Russia in almost 20 years and his trip is part of Pope Francis’ hopes to build closer links with the country.
"This visit and meeting are taking place at an important time with regard to our bilateral interstate relations, and also with regard to the relations between the Holy See and the Russian Orthodox Church," Cardinal Parolin said on 23 August.
With regard to the bilateral ties between the Holy See and the Russian Federation, we are very happy with these relations’ development, with the initiatives and contacts pursued and the various meetings that take place," he continued.
The visit also represents an increasing “eastward facing” diplomacy under this Pope who last year made visits to Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia while working hard to re-establish diplomatic ties with China and. Later this year Francis is expected to travel to one of China’s neighbours, Myanmar.
In his welcome address today, President Putin recalled his two meetings with Francis in the Vatican in 2013 and 2015 stressing: “we are working consistently to implement the agreements reached during my contacts with His Holiness Pope Francis.”
Cardinal Parolin, who was accompanied by three other officials at the meeting including the Holy See’s envoy to Russia, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, passed on the Pope’s greetings to the president while thanking him for the welcome he had received. President Putin also had three people with him at the meeting including his Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov.
The cardinal’s four day Russia trip has led to speculation about the possibility of the first ever papal visit to the country with the Cardinal Parolin yesterday saying there was some “positive momentum” behind plans for a trip.
But the Holy See’s Russian strategy also requires delicate diplomacy. Relations between the Kremlin and the Vatican were strained under Pope St John Paul II due to the Polish Pope’s role in the fall of the Soviet Union while the Russian Orthodox Church accused John Paul II of proselytising after he set up Catholic Church structures on Russian territory.
Cardinal Parolin’s time in Russia has had both an ecumenical and diplomatic dimension and included a meeting with the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill. The vast majority of Russians are orthodox Christians and given its size the church is the major power centre of eastern orthodoxy.
The Pope had his own historic meeting with the patriarch last February in Cuba, the first one in nearly 1,000 years when the eastern and western churches broke off during the great schism of 1054. It was after the 2016 encounter, that they both called on the international community to take urgent action to prevent the mass exodus of Christians in Syria and across the Middle East.
Today, President Putin said he was “very pleased” the dialogue between the two churches was ongoing with the the Russian Orthodox Church and the Putin government having close ties.
“There is no doubt that the common humanitarian values that the Holy See and the Russian Orthodox Church defend form the foundation for relations between the two churches and between Russia as a state and the Vatican,” the president said.
Along with the ecumenical dialogue, Francis wants to work with Russia on finding ways to end the conflict in Syria, where Putin has been a strong ally of President Bashar Al-Assad, and the crisis in Venezuela.
At a joint press conference yesterday with Sergei Lavrov, Cardinal Parolin - a former papal envoy to Caracas - said that Russia is in a position to mediate a political settlement in Venezuela due to their traditional ties with the country, which is run on socialist-communist grounds.
Lavrov told the cardinal: "We see that our positions are close on a number of current issues, including the peaceful settlement of crises, fighting terrorism and extremism, promoting the dialogue among religions and civilisations and strengthening social justice and the role of the family.”
Ukraine, part of which was annexed by Russia in 2014, was described as a “thorny” issue by Parolin because the Russian Orthodox Church sees the existence of the Ukrainian Catholic Church as a “problem”. The orthodox Church has accused Catholics of proselytism in Ukraine while resenting papal influence in the western part of the country, which it views as its own territory.
Cardinal Parolin is the first Secretary of State to visit Russia since Cardinal Angelo Sodano did so in 1999 to consecrate Moscow’s Catholic Cathedral.
PICTURE: President Vladimir Putin (L) and Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican's Secretary of State, shake hands during a meeting at Bocharov Ruchei residence on 23 August
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