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09 June 2010, 13:59Meeting between Patriarch, Pope will take place when sides ready - Russian Orthodox Church
Moscow, June 9, Interfax - The Russian Orthodox Church said that announcing the date and venue for talks between Patriarch Kirill and Pope Benedict XVI would be premature.
"This meeting is possible and I hope it will take place. But we cannot announce either its date, or its venue, because we are interested in its outcome, in the first place," Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, the head of the Moscow Patriarchate Department foe External Church Relations, told Russian diplomats in Moscow.
The meeting will take place "when both sides are ready to achieve a concrete result, so the meeting will accomplish a significant breakthrough in our relations," he said.
If this is to be achieved, both churches must cope with "concrete problems, which can be resolved if good will is there" - problems primarily connected with the inter-confessional situation in Western Ukraine," Metropolitan Hilarion said.
"The moment this understanding is reached, the meeting will become feasible and we will choose a date and venue for it. Unfortunately, talking about this now would be premature," he said.
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