Budapest and the Vatican can once again enter a valuable and elegant peace initial into the historical code of humanity, according to hope and papal intention.

Both the Vatican and the world press reported on the unscheduled meeting between Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Hilarion at the Apostolic Nunciature in Budapest on Saturday. In images provided by vaticannews.va

the head of the Catholic Church kissed the episcopal Panagia, encolpion, hanging around Hilarion's neck, which is a symbol of Christ's universal love. The meeting started with a hug and ended with a hug. Why is this meeting, which was not planned in advance, so significant, as Matteo Bruni, director of the press office of the Holy See, announced?

The young and very talented, theologically highly educated Hilarion is an Orthodox high priest with a writer's and composer's vein and extensive diplomatic experience. For nearly 15 years, he headed the Foreign Affairs Office of the Moscow Patriarchate, which is one of the most confidential offices in the Russian Orthodox world. It was not by chance that Patriarch Kirill considered him a confidant, and even his possible successor became famous. For example, the patriarch entrusted him with the preparation of the highest-level Roman Catholic-Russian Orthodox meeting in Cuba, which took place between Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill, the spiritual head of all Russians, in Havana in February 2016. The last time he met with Pope Francis in the Vatican was on December 22, 2021, to hold preliminary discussions on some common and mutually important spiritual and other issues.

Then came Putin's presidential decision to intervene in Ukraine, which was unanimously supported by Patriarch Kirill and the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. Only Metropolitan Hilarion, who was still the respected head of the Foreign Office at the time, expressed his concern about the events. Soon after, he was dismissed from his office and from his university professorship, and the patriarch appointed him the head of the Hungarian administration of the Russian Orthodox Church.

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The current meeting at the papal nunciature in Budapest lasted 20 minutes. His kindness was certainly not only intended for Metropolitan Hilarion, but also for the Russian Orthodox people and their church, which is suffering from the extraordinary military operations in Ukraine that have been taking place for more than a year now, as well as the Ukrainians even more.

Pope Francis has already expressed his intention that he is ready to make a pilgrimage to Moscow in the same way as to Kiev in order to establish peace or a cease-fire, and he reaffirmed this determination at the press conference held on the plane on his return from the 41st apostolic visit.

God grant that the papal embrace of peace may continue in Moscow and Kiev, for the sake of the reconciliation of all humanity and the two brotherly peoples, and for the peaceful future promised in Christ. If, in this process, the unplanned meeting between Pope Francis and Metropolitan Hilarion in Budapest has only a hair's worth of role and significance, then Budapest and the Vatican will once again enter a valuable and elegant initial of peace into the historical codex of humanity. God grant that it may be so.

Source and full article: Felvidek.ma

Featured image: Vatican News