Vatican City, May 20, 2010 / 10:46 am
Wrapping up a two-day initiative for the promotion of Russian culture and spirituality at the Holy See, a concert featuring Russian and Italian music will be offered for the Pope. The event marks the culmination of events which have exhibited an increased warmth of relations between the Russian Orthodox and Catholic Churches and could lead to an encounter between their leaders.
The evening concert, which is a special gift from Kirill I, Patriarch of Moscow and of All Russia, to Pope Benedict XVI, will be held at the Paul VI Hall just beside St. Peter's Basilica. It is the final item on the schedule of "Days of Russian Culture and Spirituality in the Vatican."
Metropolitan Hilarion Afleyev of Volokolamsk will begin the event with a greeting, which will be followed by orchestral and choral music, and finally, an address from Pope Benedict.
Vatican and Orthodox Church participants in a May 19 press conference spoke of the Russia Days as a further step forward in the relations between the Churches, which have been separated since the "Great Schism" nearly a thousand years ago. Cardinal Walter Kasper of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity called the current climate "a new stage" in relations.