The goings-on in Rome

Metropolitan Hilarion meets with Cardinal Bertone

(mospat.ru) - Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations, who is in Rome for an official visit, met with the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.

Conveying to Cardinal Bertone greetings from His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, Metropolitan Hilarion emphasized the need for developing cooperation between the Holy See and the Russian Orthodox Church on international arena, especially in partneships with UNESCO.

They agreed that the Orthodox and the Catholics, with their shared views on issues of public and personal morality, were called today to defend together traditional Christian values.

In conclusion the parties exchanged tokens of the meeting.

Present at the meeting were Hegumen Philip Riabykh, vice-chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations, and Rev. Dimitry Cizonenko, DECR acting secretary for inter-Christian relations.

Moscow Patriarchate organizes concert at the Vatican

(mospat.ru) - A concert of Russian spiritual music took place on 20 May 2010 at the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall. It was attended by Pope Benedict XVI, the College of Cardinals members, diplomatic representatives to the Holy See and numerous guests from various countries around the world.

Among the audience were also Archbishop Kirill of Yaroslavl and Rostov, Archbishop Feognost of Sergiev Posad and numerous pilgrims from the Russian Orthodox Church who have come to Rome for the concert. Altogether there were over seven thousand people.

The concert was organized by the Moscow Patriarchate’s department for external church relations, the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Pontifical Council for Culture, with the participation of St. Gregory the Theologian’s Foundation.

Before the concert, DECR chairman Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk read out a message from His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia. Then he addressed himself to the head of the Roman Catholic Church in Italian, saying,

‘Today’s concert is organized in the context of cultural relations existing between the Roman Catholic Church and the Moscow Patriarchate. Relations between our two Churches are developing today, and I hope they will continue developing in all directions covering all the aspects of church life. It is my conviction that to work together the Orthodox and the Catholics should not wait for a moment when all our theological differences disappear. We cannot harbor illusions that it will happen soon. However, we should already today work as allies rather than rivals, especially in Europe.

‘Your Holiness, we support your call to the new evangelization of Europe. We are convinced however that no Church, even so large and strong as is the Roman Catholic Church, is capable of doing it single-handed. We should be together. We share the field of missionary work, which is today’s de-Christianized Europe, as it has lost her religious, moral and cultural roots.

‘In face of the secularization, consumerist ideology, moral relativism, only together we, the Orthodox and the Catholics, may show our contemporaries our Christian humanism and the moral values of the family, marital fidelity and life itself from the moment of its conception to its natural end, etc.

‘Acting in this way, we will not only help Europeans to rediscover the spiritual and moral meaning of their life but also help our continent experiencing a serious crisis of identity to rediscover its spiritual and cultural roots’.

Then the Russian National Orchestra, Moscow Synodal Choir and St. Petersburg’s Horn Capella performed works of Rimsky-Korsakov, Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky and other Russian composers. In conclusion of the concert, Metropolitan Hilarion’s symphony for a choir and orchestra The Song of Ascents was recited.

Closing the festive event, Pope Benedict XVI addressed himself to Metropolitan Hilarion and other guests, saying in particular, that he was deeply grateful to His Holiness Patriarch Kirill. He also thanked Metropolitan Hilarion for his greeting, his tireless work in the field of inter-Christian relations and his musical works appreciated by all on that day. The Pope also greeted the delegation of the Moscow Patriarchate, diplomats and ‘all bothers and sisters, first of all, the Russians who take part in today’s celebration’.

Patriarch Kirill's message to those in attendance at the concert

To: His Holiness BENEDICT XVI, Pope of Rome

To: Guests and participants in the concert of Russian Orthodox music

I cordially greet Your Holiness and all the participants in the concert of Russian Orthodox music organized by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Pontifical Council for Culture and the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations.

For the first time in history, three remarkable teams – the Russian National Orchestra, Moscow Synodal Choir and St. Petersburg’s Horn Capella – have united in the Paul VI Hall to perform works of Russian composers. Present in the hall are the Primate of the Roman Catholic Church, bishops and priests, monastics and lay people. All this makes this concern a significant event in the history of cultural exchange between our two Churches.

Music is a special language which gives us an opportunity to communicate through hearts. Music is capable of conveying the emotional experience of the human soul and spiritual states which are impossible to describe by words.

To understand a particular people one should listen to their music. This is true not only for the Orthodox liturgical music, the best pieces of which are to be presented today, but also for the works of Russian composers written to be performed in a concert hall. In the years of persecution against the Church and the domination of official atheism when spiritual music was inaccessible for the general public, these works, along with masterpieces of Russian literature and visual arts, served the cause of Christian preaching by carrying to the world lofty spiritual and moral ideals.

Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with tambourine and dancing, praise him with the strings and flute (Ps. 3-4). These words of the psalm, which will resound today, show that music can be imbued with the spirit of prayer and intercession before God. Even secular in form, music can be spiritual in essence.

I wish God’s help to Your Holiness, to all the guests and participants in the concert.

+ Kirill