EWTN.com - Don't Rush Pope-Patriarch Summit, Cardinal Says

EWTN.com - Don't Rush Pope-Patriarch Summit, Cardinal Says:

"17-August-2007 -- Catholic World News Brief Don't Rush Pope-Patriarch Summit, Cardinal Says Moscow, Aug. 17, 2007 (CWNews.com) - Speaking to reporters in Moscow, a senior Vatican official has urged reporters not to place undue stress on the prospects for a 'summit meeting' between Pope Benedict XVI and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexei II. Cardinal Roger Etchegaray said that careful preparations should be made before a summit meeting takes place. He explained that 'all the circumstances should be favorable,' to ensure that the meeting is not merely a matter of 'posing for the camera.' 'Only God knows when it will happen,' the cardinal told Vesti-24 television in Moscow. When the world's two most influential Christian leaders do meet, he said, the event will be a powerful testimony to the unity of the faith. Cardinal Etchegaray, the vice-dean of the College of Cardinals, conceded that it is only natural to focus attention on the prospect of a meeting between the Pope and the Patriarch. But the French-born cardinal, who met with Patriarch Alexei during his trip to Moscow this week, explained that other contacts between Moscow and Rome are helping to prepare the way for the summit. The Catholic and Orthodox churches, he said, are finding many different ways to collaborate in promoting the Christian culture"

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