Vatican: Pope Francis receives Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Antonij of Volokolamsk

On the afternoon of Thursday, July 11, Pope Francis received in audience at the Vatican Metropolitan Antonij of Volokolamsk, president of the Department of Foreign Ecclesiastical Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate.

This was announced by the Press Office of the Holy See this Friday, July 12. The Vatican has not offered further details about the meeting or released photographs.

This is not the first time that the Orthodox representative has met with Pope Francis after his appointment in June 2022 as successor to Metropolitan Hilarion.

The two greeted each other for the first time in May 2023, after a General Audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican.

This meeting took place three days after the Holy Father revealed that a “mission” was underway to try to end the war in Ukraine.

On that occasion, the Orthodox metropolitan presented the Holy Father with a panagia, the medallion with the Mother of God that Russian Orthodox people usually wear on their chest.

Antonij had traveled to Rome with the “blessing” of Moscow Patriarch Kirill, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church who has justified Russia’s offensive against Ukraine.

He also met with Archbishop Mons. Claudio Gugerotti, prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches.

Yesterday’s meeting took place just two days after Pope Francis expressed his “great pain” for the Russian attacks on two hospitals in kyiv (Ukraine), including the largest children’s medical center in the country.

The Holy Father expressed his closeness to the “victims and the injured innocents” and assured to pray “so that concrete ways can soon be identified to put an end to the ongoing conflicts.”