Pope Francis met July 11 with Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, head of external church relations for the Moscow Patriarchate, the Vatican announced.
The statement released by the Vatican July 12 did not provide additional information on the meeting or the topics discussed.
Pope Francis last met with Metropolitan Anthony in May 2023, shortly before sending Cardinal Matteo Zuppi of Bologna, president of the Italian bishops' conference and the pope's peace envoy for Ukraine, to both Kyiv and Moscow the following month.
In Moscow, Cardinal Zuppi met with both Metropolitan Anthony and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow. In July 2023 the cardinal met with U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington and in September he traveled to Beijing where he met with senior government officials.
The papal meeting is also the first between the two since the Moscow Patriarchate published a document condemning the December 2023 declaration by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, "Fiducia Supplicans" ("Supplicating Trust"), which stated that an informal blessing of a gay or other unmarried couple, though not the union in itself, is permissible.
The patriarchate's document called the declaration "a rejection of the Christian moral ideal" and said it was "very dangerous from a theological standpoint."
Pope Francis first met Metropolitan Anthony in August 2022, and the following month they met again during an interreligious meeting in Kazakhstan. The pope was expected to meet with Patriarch Kirill for the second time during that meeting, but the patriarch canceled his trip weeks before the meeting.
The two had met via a video call in March 2022 and the pope urged the patriarch not to use "the language of politics, but the language of Jesus."
