The Pope awards a medal to Putin and discusses the situation in Ukraine

Pope Francis and President Vladimir Putin. Photo: Vatican New

On July 4, 2019, Pope Francis met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and discussed with him the situation in Ukraine, Syria and Venezuela, Vatican News official online edition of the Vatican reported.

The meeting in the Apostolic Palace lasted for nearly an hour. During the audience, Pope Francis presented Putin with a commemorative medal in honor of the centenary of the end of the First World War and copies of his message on the occasion of the World Peace Day on January 1, 2019, the apostolic admonition "Gaudete et exultate" about calling to holiness in the contemporary world, the post-synodal apostolic epistle of the youth and all the people of God Christus Vivit, and the “Document of Human Brotherhood” signed by him in Abu Dhabi with the great Imam of Al-Azhar.

The President of Russia presented the head of the Vatican with an icon of the holy apostles Peter and Paul and a DVD with the film “Sin,” directed by Andrei Konchalovsky, about the master of the Renaissance and early Baroque Michelangelo Buonarroti.

Following the conversation with Pope Francis, Putin also met with the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and the Secretary of the Holy See for Relations with States, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher.

Earlier, the Pope received a delegation of the Patriarch of Constantinople, while the Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew, in his message to Pope Francis, said that he hoped to restore communication with the “sister Roman Church”.

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