For those who can read Russian. The website of the Moscow Patriarchate informs us about the encounter of Patriarch Kiril with the Eastern Catholics Patriarchs in Lebanon. This is a historical event. For more info, please visit: http://www.patriarchia.ru/db/text/1675131.html

If someone comes accross the English version, please post it.

Pictures from this encounter: http://www.mospat.ru/ru/2011/11/16/news52322/

Very interesting.

Awesome!

Very interesting information. But as I know Moscow Patriarchte "working " with eastern-catholics in Middle East for a long time. A friend of mine which have studied in Lebanon in maronite University told me that there are a lot of moscow-philes... So this "work" of MP is effective:)

Here is the article in English: http://www.mospat.ru/en/2011/11/16/news52322/

I find it very interesting that Patriarch Kyril has such cordial relations with eastern Catholic hierarchs who are operating within the canonical territories of the Orthodox Patriarchs of Antioch, Alexandria and Jerusalem, and yet cannot come to grips with an eastern Catholic hierarch who is doing the same within a canonical territory he considers to be his own. Having grown up in the thick of the Cold War, I am reminded of that saying we to used to apply to Soviet diplomacy: "What's mine is mine. What's yours is negotiable!"

It's so much easier to be friends when you're not neighbours.

While I won't disagree entirely with the first sentence, one needs keep in mind that the relationships between and among the Catholic and Orthodox Patriarchs of Antioch are perhaps the most cordial and collegial to be found in the Eastern and Oriental Christian world.

So, in consorting with the Catholic Patriarchs of that title, it isn't as if HH Kirill is likely to be perceived as disrespecting his EO or OO peers of the same title. Frankly, it wouldn't have surprised me all that much were the Antiochian Pentarchy to have met with him as a body.

(It wouldn't be the first time that some mix and match grouping of the 5 were found together with a distinguished visitor.) Keep in mind that these five men (and their Assyrian and Chaldean counterparts as well) are less concerned with the concepts of canonical territory than they are with the survival of their collective flock - a point they've made in singular and joint communiques on any number of occasions.

Many years,

Neil

Russia historically viewed itself as a protector of Middle Eastern Christians, and given that the U.S. has abdicated its position of leadership in the region, Russia probably would like to posture as such again, in which case, cordial relations between the Churches of the Middle East and the Church of Moscow would be a necessary precondition.

The truth in this situation as in that, I'm sure is somewhere in between.