Pope Francis will meet with the head of the Orthodox Church of the Czech Republic and Slovakia for this first time this week, the Vatican announced yesterday.
The historic gathering, due to take place this Friday, will see Metropolitan Rastislav, archbishop and primate of the Czech and Slovak church body, meet the pope for the first time since the archbishop was elected in 2014, according to the Catholic News Agency.
The ecumenical occasion will be a part of the archbishop's visit to Rome from May 9-11, though specific details of his meeting with Pope Francis are unknown. Rastislav will also meet Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity.
The body over which Rastislav presides covers the territories of Slovakia and the Czech Republic, and is one of 14 self-governing bodies in the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Pope Francis is known for seeking ecumenical relations with other groups outside the Catholic Church: he met with Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church in 2016, Coptic Pope Tawadros II in 2013 and has met several times with Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, the 'first among equals' of the Eastern Orthodox Church. On July 7 Pope Francis will join several church leaders for an ecumenical gathering in Bari, Italy to pray for the Middle East.
In his traditional Wednesday address at the Vatican yesterday, Pope Francis welcomed Arab-speaking visitors and urged prayer for peace for the Middle East nation of Syria, which remains mired in violent conflict.
