(Vatican Radio) Father Kirill Gorbunov, Press Secretary for the Catholic Archdiocese of the Mother of God in Moscow, said on Friday that he believes the upcoming meeting between Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, will help take relations “to a new level” between the two Churches. He spoke to Susy Hodges shortly after the announcement that this historic meeting between the two spiritual leaders will take place in Cuba on February 12th.Listen to the interview with Father Kirill Gorbunov, Spokesman for the Catholic Archdiocese of the Mother of God in Moscow: Father Gorbunov says besides being an historic first, the meeting between Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill is hugely significant because around two thirds of the world’s Orthodox Christians belong to the Russian Orthodox Church. Although there has never been a meeting before between the leaders of the Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church, Father...
(Vatican Radio) Father Kirill Gorbunov, Press Secretary for the Catholic Archdiocese of the Mother of God in Moscow, said on Friday that he believes the upcoming meeting between Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, will help take relations “to a new level” between the two Churches. He spoke to Susy Hodges shortly after the announcement that this historic meeting between the two spiritual leaders will take place in Cuba on February 12th.
Listen to the interview with Father Kirill Gorbunov, Spokesman for the Catholic Archdiocese of the Mother of God in Moscow:
Father Gorbunov says besides being an historic first, the meeting between Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill is hugely significant because around two thirds of the world’s Orthodox Christians belong to the Russian Orthodox Church. Although there has never been a meeting before between the leaders of the Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church, Father Gorbunov said over the years there have been regular lower-level contacts between the two Churches that he described as “very rich and fruitful.” He noted that before becoming Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Kirill had met with two Popes, John Paul II and Benedict XVI.
“Take relations to a new level”
Father Gorbunov said he believed this historic meeting will help take relations “to a new level” between the Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church and from now on both sides will have “more freedom and more courage” to seek better relations and work together more.
“A common witness”
The Russian Orthodox Church said the central item on the agenda during the meeting in Cuba between Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill will be the persecution of Christians in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world. Father Gorbunov said the planned meeting showed that both Churches are putting aside their long-standing differences and disagreements in order to provide a united front and “a common witness” to respond to the suffering and persecution of Christians in today’s world.
“What is most important is saving peoples’ lives and (helping) Churches that are struggling to survive and this is really a very important thing to discuss," said Father Gorbunov.
Reporter Catherine Hadro speaks with Sister Mary Gianna of the Disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ and Frank DeAngelis on "EWTN News In Depth" on April 19, 2024. Sister Mary Gianna, also known as Jenica Thornby, was a sophomore at Columbine High School and DeAngelis was principal on April 20, 1999, when two gunmen killed 12 students and one teacher before turning their guns on themselves. / Credit: "EWTN News In Depth" screen shotsCNA Staff, Apr 22, 2024 / 15:30 pm (CNA).Throughout her freshman and sophomore years at Columbine High School, Jenica Thornby went to the library every single day."Not one day went by that I did not go to the library," Thornby recently told "EWTN News In Depth" reporter Catherine Hadro. "Except one day."That day was April 20, 1999. "I was 16 years old, and I was sitting in my art class when all of a sudden I had this overwhelming urge to leave school," she recalled. "I just over [and over] in my head kept repeating, 'There's no way I'm staying her...
Left to right: Dr. John Bruchalski, a former abortionist and IVF provider, Emma Waters, a senior research associate at the Heritage Foundation, Andrew Kubick, a bioethicist at the National Catholic Bioethics Center and the Religious Freedom Institute, and Sister Deirdre Byrne, superior of the D.C. Little Workers of the Sacred Hearts, discuss the "eugenic" dangers of in vitro fertilization at a panel event at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., April 18, 2024. / Credit: Photo by Peter Pinedo/CNAWashington D.C., Apr 22, 2024 / 16:00 pm (CNA).A former abortionist and several pro-life ethicists are urging lawmakers to protect children and parents from the in vitro fertilization (IVF) industry, which they say operates on "eugenic" principles. IVF is a fertility treatment that works by inducing hyper-ovulation during a woman's cycle to harvest her eggs and then fuse them with sperm to conceive a child outside the womb. The Catholic Church is opposed t...
Bishop Tesfasellassie Medhin of the Catholic Eparchy of Adigrat in Ethiopia, which covers the Tigray region. / Credit: CBCEACI Africa, Apr 22, 2024 / 16:30 pm (CNA).The bishop of Ethiopia's Catholic Eparchy of Adigrat, which covers the Tigray region, said he has witnessed firsthand the "unspeakable suffering" and death of the people of God in the embattled region of the Horn of Africa nation.In a statement that ACI Africa, CNA's news partner in Africa, obtained April 19, Bishop Tesfasellassie Medhin pleaded for the implementation of the Nov. 2, 2022, peace agreement in Pretoria, South Africa, in which the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) pledged to "permanently silence the guns and end the two years of conflict in northern Ethiopia.""I am writing as a religious leader with deep concern and feeling for the pain of tens of millions of our population in the country, especially the children, elders, and women of Tigray," Medhin said. He pain...
