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Pope visits Kazakhstan, may meet Russian patriarch

ROMAN –

Next month, Pope Francis will travel to Kazakhstan, where he can meet Patriarch Kirill, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church who has justified Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

Francis, 85, will attend an interfaith conference in the Kazakh capital Nur-Sultan, from September 13 to 15, the Vatican said on Monday.

Francis canceled a planned meeting with Kirill in June in Jerusalem because of the diplomatic setback it would create. Kirill justified the invasion of Ukraine on spiritual and ideological grounds, calling it a “metaphysical” battle with the West. He blessed Russian soldiers who went to war and introduced the idea that Russians and Ukrainians are one people.

Francis and Kirill, who had their first historic meeting in Havana in 2016, have spoken by video call at least once since the war began.

The government of Kazakhstan will hold a “Congress of Leaders of Traditional and World Religions” from September 14 to 15. Kirill has been invited and the Moscow Patriarchate has said he will attend.

Returning from a recently concluded trip to Canada, Francis told journalists on Saturday that in addition to Kazakhstan he also hopes to visit Ukraine but that has yet to be confirmed. Vatican officials say they hope to organize a trip even in the coming weeks.

On Sunday, Pope Francis prayed for Ukraine again, saying he never stopped praying for “the attacked, martyred Ukrainians,” during his Canadian pilgrimage.

“If we look at reality objectively, considering the damage that war brings every day to those people but also to the whole world, the most logical thing to do is to stop and negotiate,” he said. “May wisdom inspire concrete steps of peace.”

Francis has criticized Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Kirill’s support for the war, telling an Italian newspaper in May that the cardinal should not become “Putin’s altar boy.”

The Russian Patriarchate countered that it was unfortunate that “Francis had “chosen the wrong tone” to relay the content of their March video call.

Francis, who has limited mobility because of a strained knee ligament, said he thought the Kazakhstan trip would be “quiet, without much movement” as it was purely to attend a religious congress. .

A trip to Ukraine would be much more complicated and he would probably have to catch the train from Poland.

“I said I wanted to go to Ukraine. Let’s see what I found when I got home,” he said.

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