Moscow, June 22 – Pope of Rome Benedict XVI and the Dalai Lama will not attend the World Religious Summit in Moscow on July 3-5, summit organizers told a Thursday press conference in Moscow.
“A Russian visit by the pontiff is a historic event, and it would be wrong to hold it simultaneously with another historic event: the summit,” head of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad said.
Contacts between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Vatican “have recently intensified, thanks to their awareness of the importance of problems to be discussed at the summit,” he said. “We are grateful to Benedict XVI for his positive attitude toward the summit,” he said.
This attitude is confirmed by the large delegation from the Roman Catholic Church to attend the forum, the metropolitan said.
The Dalai Lama will not attend the summit either, because the organizers are uncertain that inviting the Buddhist leader will be viewed positively, deputy head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s External Church Relations Department Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin said.
Chaplin said they had not invited representatives of new religions, including Jehovah’s Witnesses and Unification Church of Rev. Sun Myung Moon, because “the majority of representatives of traditional religions will refuse to seat next to members of such exotic religious movements.”
