Pope will not meet Russian Orthodox patriarch during Kazakh visit -RIA

(Reuters) -Pope Francis and the top of the Russian Orthodox church, who backs the warfare in Ukraine, won’t meet when each males attend a gathering of spiritual leaders in Kazakhstan subsequent month, RIA information company cited a senior Orthodox official as saying on Wednesday.

Francis, as a consequence of be within the capital Nur-Sultan from Sept. 13-15 to attend the VII Congress of Leaders of World and Conventional Religions, has mentioned in a number of current interviews he hopes to satisfy with Patriarch Kirill when in Kazakhstan.

However Bishop Anthony, the Russian church’s second strongest bishop, informed RIA there was no query of the 2 non secular leaders assembly on the sidelines.

“It (a gathering) have to be an unbiased occasion by advantage of its significance,” mentioned Anthony, in control of international relations, who held talks with Francis in early August. Francis has met Kirill as soon as earlier than, in Cuba in 2016.

Kirill, a detailed ally of President Vladimir Putin, has given enthusiastic backing to the invasion of Ukraine.

In June, Francis implicitly accused Russia of “armed conquest, expansionism and imperialism” in Ukraine.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Modifying by Chizu Nomiyama and Alistair Bell)