Photo credit: patriarchia.ru
Relations between the Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches are developing very actively, the head of the Synodal Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), Metropolitan Hilarion states. He said this after the meeting of the joint working group on cooperation in the social and cultural spheres, TASS reports.
An additional incentive to the development of interaction was the meeting of Pope Francis and Patriarch Cyril, the clergyman recalled. It took place four years ago in Havana.
According to the Russian ambassador to the Vatican, Alexander Avdeev, one of the central events of the cooperation program will be an exhibition of works by Leonid Brailovsky. The paintings of the Russian artist are stored in the Vatican museums. It is planned that they will be brought to the Russian capital next year. The diplomat noted that Brailovsky was forced to leave his homeland and go abroad after the October Revolution. The artist settled in Italy, and lived and worked in Rome. Avdeev recalled that the exhibition will be held under the auspices of two churches, and the authorities will assist in the program of cultural church exchanges.
The “Saints - Signs and Seeds of Unity” conference was timed to the fourth anniversary of the meeting of the two primates. It took place at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas. The forum participants watched Metropolitan Hilarion’s Apostle Peter.
Hilarion, author of numerous books, composer and musician, said that the film was shot in Italy, in places related to the life of the first supreme apostle. The priest emphasized that both churches honor the Apostle Peter. He promised that the next film will be dedicated to the Apostle Paul.
Russkiy Mir
