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_WORLD WATCH______________________________
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President would welcome Pope
More pressure on Moscow Patriarchate?
Russian President Vladimir Putin has given his backing for a visit by Pope John Paul II to Moscow.
Putin, speaking to the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, said that the Pope’s visits to Eastern European countries such as Ukraine have been “positive developments.” He said that he hoped the Pontiff would soon come to Moscow.
The Russian leader’s public statement put him in conflict with Russian Orthodox Patriarch Aleksei II, who has repeatedly said that the time is not right for a papal visit to Moscow. Putin alluded to the frosty relations between the Vatican and the Moscow Patriarchate when he told the Italian newspaper that he would like to see an “opening of new horizons” in relations between the two faiths.
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