Cool Russian visit to Vatican

No word in public about a papal visit to Russia

By David Willey in Rome

The Russian Foreign Minister, Igor Ivanov, has met the Pope at the Vatican, but there was no sign of an improvement in relations which would allow the Pope to visit Moscow.

One of the Pope's most cherished ambitions has been to pay the first papal visit to Russia.

Nothing was said by either side after talks in the Pope's private study about a possible visit by the Pope.

The Vatican spokesman said simply that the Pope holds similar views to those of the Russian Government on the Middle East and other international issues.

Stumbling block

One of Mr Ivanov's engagements in Rome during his official visit has been to lay the foundation stone of a new Orthodox church in the grounds of the Russian embassy.

Mr Ivanov lays the foundation stone at a new church

The Vatican pointedly sent only a middle-ranking representative to the ceremony.

The stumbling block to a visit by the Pope to Moscow is the conviction among Russian Orthodox church leaders that the Pope is still trying to spread Catholicism in traditionally Orthodox territories in Russia.

The Pope is planning to visit Ukraine in June, where Catholics have been allowed to practice their religion again following the fall of communism.

Clashes over property

But there have been clashes between the two communities over the ownership of former Catholic church properties, which were taken over by the Orthodox when the local Catholic church was dissolved by Stalin.

Russian Orthodox church leaders believe the Pope is trying to spread Catholicism in Russia

The Vatican Missionary News Agency says it has information from Orthodox sources that the head of the Russian Orthodox church, Patriarch Alexy, has asked one of his bishops to write to the Pope asking him to call off his visit to Ukraine.

Officially an invitation to visit Moscow, extended to the Pope in 1989 by the then President of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, still stands, but no mention of it was made when President Vladimir Putin called on the Pope during a visit to the Vatican last June.