President Vladimir Putin met Pope Francis in the Vatican on last Thursday, amid signs of closer ties between the Kremlin and the Roman Catholic Church.

The meeting came a day before the Pope is due to hold talks in Rome with leaders of Ukraine’s Greek-Catholic Church to discuss the conflict in that country. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church last year formally split from the Russian Orthodox Church amid tensions between Kiev and Moscow over the war in eastern Ukraine.

The Pope and Putin “expressed their satisfaction” at how ties are developing, the Vatican said in a website statement. They discussed the role of the Catholic Church in Russia as well as ecological issues and international affairs including the situation in Syria, Ukraine and Venezuela, according to the statement.

The meeting is the third between the two leaders, with the last one held in 2015. The head of 1.2 billion Catholics also had an historic encounter with Patriarch Kirill, leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, in Cuba in 2016. Putin will also meet Italian leaders including Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte during his one-day visit to Rome.

Ties have been strained for centuries between the Vatican and the Russian Orthodox Church since the Great Schism of 1054 that split eastern and western Christianity over theological differences. The Russian Orthodox Church accused Catholics of trying to win converts following the 1991 break-up of the Soviet Union, preventing John Paul II from fulfilling his long-held wish to travel to Russia.

Until the Cuba meeting, the head of the Russian Church had never met with the Roman pontiff because of doctrinal differences as well as arguments over the leadership of Ukrainian Christians.

Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said on last Wednesday that Putin has no plans yet to invite Francis to make a visit to Russia, and that the question should be considered together with the patriarch.

上周四，俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京与教皇方济各在梵蒂冈会面，此举表明俄罗斯政府与罗马天主教会的关系进一步密切。

这次会面的时间定于教皇按照计划在罗马与乌克兰东正教领导人讨论该国冲突的前一天。由于基辅和莫斯科在乌克兰东部战争上的紧张情绪，乌克兰东正教在去年已经与俄罗斯东正教正式决裂。

梵蒂冈在网站发布的一份声明称，教皇和普京对于双方关系的进展“表示满意”。声明指出，双方探讨了俄罗斯天主教会所扮演的角色，以及生态问题和国际问题，包括叙利亚、乌克兰、委内瑞拉的局势。

这是两位领导人第三次会晤，上一次是在2015年。这位12亿天主教徒的领袖曾经于2016年在古巴与俄罗斯东正教牧首基里尔进行过历史性的会面。普京在为期一日的罗马访问中还将会见总理朱塞佩·孔特等意大利领导人。

从1054年基督教由于教义分歧而分裂成东西两部分起，多个世纪以来，梵蒂冈和俄罗斯东正教会之间的关系都十分紧张。俄罗斯东征教会指责天主教徒试图在1991年苏联解体后吸纳他们的信徒，并阻止了若望·保禄二世实现长期以来访问俄罗斯的愿望。

由于教义分歧和对乌克兰基督徒的领导权争议，俄罗斯东正教牧首与罗马教皇从未进行过会面，这种情况直到古巴会面才出现改变。

克里姆林宫的外交政策顾问尤里·乌沙科夫在上周三表示，普京目前还没有邀请方济各访问俄罗斯的计划，该问题需要与东正教牧首共同考虑。（财富中文网）

译者：严匡正