{"id":2577,"date":"2007-03-13T16:38:09","date_gmt":"2007-03-13T16:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2007\/03\/putin-and-the-pope.html"},"modified":"2007-03-13T16:38:09","modified_gmt":"2007-03-13T16:38:09","slug":"putin-and-the-pope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/03\/putin-and-the-pope.html","title":{"rendered":"Putin and the Pope"},"content":{"rendered":"

They met today. From AsiaNews:<\/a><\/p>\n

Relations between Catholics and Orthodox were also on the agenda of talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Benedict XVI, which took place this evening in the Vatican, in a \u201cvery positive climate\u201d.  The \u201ccordial relations\u201d between the Vatican and Federation as well as international concerns, in particular the current Middle East crises, were other themes broached in discussions, which also touched upon the \u201cproblems of intolerance and extremism\u201d, according to a press office statement released by the Holy See.<\/p>\n

The Vatican, then has judged the first meeting between Benedict XVI and Putin to as positive, which also saw a parallel encounter between Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov and Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone. \u201cThe meeting \u2013 reads the Vatican note \u2013 which took place in a very positive atmosphere, highlights existing relations between the Holy See and the Russian Federation, as well as the shared desire to further develop said relations, through specific cultural initiatives.  In light of this, bilateral themes of common interest were discussed with careful consideration also paid to relations between the Catholic Church and Orthodox Church.  Current international questions were also analyzed, in particular the Middle East. Finally, the problems of intolerance and extremism were addressed, which constitute a grave threat to civil relations between Nations, underlining the necessity to preserve and favour peace through negotiated solutions to ongoing conflicts\u201d.<\/p>\n

Even Russian journalists in the presidential cortege speak of a \u201cclimate of great cordiality, beyond protocol, sign of a significant event\u201d. The Russian Presidential spokesman, Aleksiei Gromov, told the press that Putin had referred greetings from the Patriarch of Moscow Alexi II to the Pope, who likewise extended a salute to the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church. <\/p>\n

Putin arrived at the Vatican shortly before 6 pm, dressed in a blue suit and red tie. He was met in the St Damascus courtyard by the Papal gentlemen; he was escorted to the third floor, passing through the halls which lead to the private library and the Pope\u2019s study. Benedict XVI greeted the Russian President moving forward to meet him in the library, in the adjacent Throne room.  \u201cI warmly welcome you to the Vatican\u201d, he said to him in German, a language which Putin knows well, and a handshake which journalist present describe as \u201clong and cordial\u201d. \u201cNow, we must allow for photographs\u201d added the Pope, after Putin positioned himself at the desk, the same place occupied by Gorbachev in his historic \"Putin\"<\/a> visit with John Paul II and then the doors closed on the private meeting which lasted over 25 minutes.  Putin and Benedict XVI spoke in German assisted by two interpreters. <\/p>\n

Following the encounter, there was the presentation of the delegations and the exchange of gifts. The Russian President presented the Pope with a modern icon of St Nicolas.  The Pope for his part, gifted the premier with an incision of a view of St Peter dated to 1662.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They met today. From AsiaNews: Relations between Catholics and Orthodox were also on the agenda of talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Benedict XVI, which took place this evening in the Vatican, in a \u201cvery positive climate\u201d.  The \u201ccordial relations\u201d between the Vatican and Federation as well as international concerns, in particular the current…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nPutin and the Pope - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/03\/putin-and-the-pope.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Putin and the Pope - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"They met today. From AsiaNews: Relations between Catholics and Orthodox were also on the agenda of talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Benedict XVI, which took place this evening in the Vatican, in a \u201cvery positive climate\u201d.  The \u201ccordial relations\u201d between the Vatican and Federation as well as international concerns, in particular the current…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/03\/putin-and-the-pope.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-03-13T16:38:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/amywelborn.typepad.com\/openbook\/images\/2007\/03\/13\/putin.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"awelborn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Putin and the Pope - Via Media","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/03\/putin-and-the-pope.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Putin and the Pope - Via Media","og_description":"They met today. From AsiaNews: Relations between Catholics and Orthodox were also on the agenda of talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Benedict XVI, which took place this evening in the Vatican, in a \u201cvery positive climate\u201d.  The \u201ccordial relations\u201d between the Vatican and Federation as well as international concerns, in particular the current…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/03\/putin-and-the-pope.html","og_site_name":"Via Media","article_published_time":"2007-03-13T16:38:09+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/amywelborn.typepad.com\/openbook\/images\/2007\/03\/13\/putin.jpg"}],"author":"awelborn","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/03\/putin-and-the-pope.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/03\/putin-and-the-pope.html","name":"Putin and the Pope - Via Media","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/03\/putin-and-the-pope.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/03\/putin-and-the-pope.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/amywelborn.typepad.com\/openbook\/images\/2007\/03\/13\/putin.jpg","datePublished":"2007-03-13T16:38:09+00:00","dateModified":"2007-03-13T16:38:09+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/aea2dcda1635c9c2d6030d9c7595725a"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/03\/putin-and-the-pope.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/03\/putin-and-the-pope.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/03\/putin-and-the-pope.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/amywelborn.typepad.com\/openbook\/images\/2007\/03\/13\/putin.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/amywelborn.typepad.com\/openbook\/images\/2007\/03\/13\/putin.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/03\/putin-and-the-pope.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Putin and the Pope"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/","name":"Via Media","description":"Amy Welborn","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/aea2dcda1635c9c2d6030d9c7595725a","name":"awelborn","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/9f2\/9f2100183464289fedc5b8a621c15110x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/9f2\/9f2100183464289fedc5b8a621c15110x96.jpg","caption":"awelborn"},"description":"Amy Welborn was born in 1960, the only child of a now-retired professor of political science, a teacher-librarian-artist mother,deceased since 2001, was a teacher, librarian and artist. The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2577\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}