For the first time in the history of Christianity, the patriarch of Moscow and all Russia, Kirill I, will be visiting Poland from 16th to 19th August; on 17th August, along with the president of the Polish Bishops Conference (Kep), mgr. Jozef Michalik, he will sign a joint message of the two Churches for their respective peoples, the Russian and the Polish one. Mgr. Michalik is waiting for the epoch-making event “with great hope”, since the document “will concern the prospects of deeper brotherhood between the Christian devotees of both peoples”. According to the president of the Polish Bishops, the signing of the document is, above all, “a brave gesture of obedience by the Russian Orthodox Church and by the Polish Catholic Church to Jesus’ words on the duty to be brothers”. The spokesman of Kep, Jozef Kloch, already said that the message “will contain a reflection on the history of the two peoples through the centuries, an appeal to mutual forgiveness and reconciliation”, as well as a “call to continue their dialogue and give a joint testimony, especially because of the challenges of the modern world and today’s Europe”. In Poland, Kirill, the patriarch, will meet the metropolitan bishop Sawa, leader of the Polish Orthodox Church, and will visit some religious centres. In addition, he will be received by the president of the Republic, Bronislaw Komorowski.

27/06/2012 -