Pope
Francis met on Tuesday with Metropolitan Hilarion, head of the
Department of External Church Relations of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Later
this evening a "Concert for Peace" in honor of Pope Francis, will be
offered by the Russian Orthodox Church, with music sung by a young
Russian opera singer, Svetlana Kasyan, at the Auditorium in Via della
Conciliazione.
The Pope’s meeting with Metropolitan Hilarion comes as
the Archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Angelo Scola, is in Moscow, meeting
with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill.
Exploring
Orthodox spirituality and promoting reconciliation between Catholics
and Orthodox is also the focus of life at a Benedictine monastery in
Belgium, commonly known as Chevetogne Abbey.
Founded in the 1920s, the
monastery holds both Latin and Eastern rite services every day and runs
the world’s oldest ecumenical journal entitled ‘Irenikon’.