Pope Francis on Wednesday greeted the
'foreign minister' of Moscow's Orthodox Patriarch fuelling
speculation on a Vatican peace mission for Ukraine he has hinted
at but which both Russia and Kyiv have denied all knowledge of.
At the end of the general audience in St Peter's Square, at the
moment of the 'baciamano' (hand kissing) on the Vatican parvis,
Pope Francis first greeted the Orthodox Metropolitan Antonij of
Volokolamsk, president of the Department of External Relations
of the Moscow Patriarchate.
The Pope immediately kissed Antonij's pectoral cross and
exchanged gifts and some jokes with him. In the past Antonij,
Hilarion's successor as 'foreign minister' to Patriarch Kirill,
was rector of the Church of St Catherine Martyr in Rome, a
stone's throw from the Vatican.
Russia "has no knowledge" of a Vatican peace mission for
Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted by the Tass
news agency as saying Tuesday.
The statement came after a Ukrainian presidential office
official told CNN Monday he was "not aware" of a peace mission
involving the Vatican.
On Sunday Pope Francis said that the Vatican is involved in a
peace mission to try to end the conflict between Russia and
Ukraine, details of which have however not been disclosed.
"There is a mission in course now but it is not yet public. When
it is public, I will reveal it," the pope told reporters during
the return flight from Hungary.
"If there are talks, they are taking place without our
knowledge," said the Ukrainian official according to CNN
reports.
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