Vatican's top ecumenist heads to Moscow for meeting with Orthodox Patriarch

Cardinal Kurt Koch

VATICAN CITY, Catholic Culture News - Cardinal Kurt Koch, the new president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, travels to Moscow this weekend for his first meeting with leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Cardinal Koch will meet with Patriarch Kirill, who was the chief ecumenical spokesman for the Moscow patriarchate prior to his election in January 2009 as the head of the Russian Orthodox Church. Their meeting follows just after a visit to the Vatican by Russia’s President Dimitri Medvedev, which had prompted speculation that the Russian leader might carry an informal message from the Moscow patriarchate.