The Vatican has finalized this Monday, August 24, the agenda that Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher will follow during his visit to Moscow, Russia, and has confirmed two meetings that had not been announced until now: a meeting with Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, head of external relations for the Patriarchate of Moscow, and another with Yuri Ushakov, advisor to President Vladimir Putin on foreign policy. The Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations of the Holy See arrives today in the Russian capital and will remain in the country until Friday the 28th.
The program released by the Secretariat of State also confirms the meeting scheduled for tomorrow, Tuesday the 25th, with the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergei Lavrov. That meeting had already been announced by Moscow last week, but at that time the rest of the political and ecclesial interlocutors who would receive the head of Vatican diplomacy were not known.
Read also: Moscow confirms Gallagher’s visit to Russia: he will meet with Lavrov on August 25
After meeting with Lavrov, Gallagher will hold a meeting on Tuesday with Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, president of the Department for External Church Relations of the Patriarchate of Moscow. The meeting thus adds to the official travel agenda a direct contact with the body responsible for the external relations of the Russian Orthodox Church.
On Wednesday the 26th, Gallagher will meet with Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s advisor on foreign policy. A career diplomat, Ushakov was Russia’s ambassador to the United States between 1998 and 2008 and since 2012 has served as presidential advisor on international affairs.
According to Vatican News, the agenda shows the Holy See’s willingness to continue along the path of dialogue “even in one of the most difficult moments of international relations at the global level.”
The visit constitutes Gallagher’s first trip to Russia since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. His last stay in Moscow took place in November 2021, when he met with the Russian prime minister, Mikhail Mishustin; with Lavrov; and with the then head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Patriarchate of Moscow, Metropolitan Hilarion.
A day with the Catholic community
On Thursday the 27th, the agenda will shift from the diplomatic and ecumenical sphere to the Catholic community in Russia. Gallagher will begin the day with a meeting with priests, religious brothers and sisters, and will later celebrate Mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Moscow.
After the celebration, a meeting with the country’s Catholic bishops is planned.
The Catholic Church in Russia constitutes a numerically small community scattered across a vast territory. Its territorial organization includes the Archdiocese of the Mother of God in Moscow and the dioceses of St. Clement in Saratov, the Transfiguration in Novosibirsk, and St. Joseph in Irkutsk.
The mission will conclude on Friday, August 28, with Gallagher’s return to Rome.