Russian and Polish hierarchs in talks to warm relations

October 4, 2009 (cerkiew.pl) - The extraordinary visit of the Russian Orthodox Church in Poland can start a real reconciliation of the two nations.

The delegation of the Orthodox Church in Russia leaded by the archimandrite Arkadiusz the superior of the St. Nil monastery in the Stolobienskoje island came for almost a week on the invitation of the Roman Catholic episcopacy. They meet archbishop Henryk Muszyński, the general secretary of the episcopacy bishop Stanisław Budzil and the president of the episcopacy archbishop Jozef Michalik.

The representatives of the two Churches have discussed how to improve the cool relations between Poland and Russia. In the talks the issue of a common declaration has arisen. The declaration is to include the appeal for reconciliation as in the famous letter of polish bishops to the German “We forgive and ask for forgiveness” from 1965.

The Orthodox monks took on Jasna Góra the copy of the icon of Mother of God from Częstochowa. The icon will be places in the chapel which was built in the monastery near Ostaszków, close to the place where Polish officers were imprisoned in the time of the Second World War.