New Moscow nuncio promises ‘more openness’

The Vatican’s new nuncio to Russia has pledged to “set aside diplomatic mechanisms” and follow “a more open style” in a bid to improve ties with the country’s Orthodox Church. “Relations between the Catholic and Orthodox sister-Churches certainly pose a great and exciting challenge,” said Archbishop Celestino Migliore, who served in Warsaw from 2010. “But Orthodoxy isn’t just the majority Church in the Russian Federation. It’s part of a close symbiosis with Russian culture and history.”

The 63-year-old told Poland’s Catholic information agency, KAI, that the Pope’s February meeting with Patriarch Kirill in Cuba had been the “first step on a common path”. Poland’s Catholic primate, Archbishop Wojciech Polak, said he counted on Archbishop Migliore to help “overcome the impasse” between the Russian Orthodox and Polish Catholic Churches, which was “frozen because of the situation in Ukraine”.

Archbishop Migliore will work alongside Moscow-based Archbishop Paolo Pezzi, also Italian, head of Russia’s million-strong Catholic Church.