Vatican official hopes for better relations with Russia, Orthodox

Published: 2005-10-27

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican's foreign minister, Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, told reporters in Moscow that he hoped for improved relations between the Vatican and the Russian government and between the Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church. The archbishop, in Moscow Oct. 26-30 for meetings with government and religious leaders, gave interviews to the Catholic newspaper Svet Evangelja and to the news agency Blagovest-Info. Italian texts of the interviews were distributed Oct. 27 by the Vatican press office. The archbishop said his talks with government officials would focus mainly on ways the Catholic Church and Russia could cooperate in promoting peace around the world, particularly in the Middle East, and in the battle against poverty, hunger and threats to human dignity.

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