Russian Orthodox Church says the Pope misinterpreted the message of Kirill

This is stated in the comments of the communication service of the Department for External Church Relations, which was published by the official ROC website.

After analyzing the interview, the Russian Orthodox Church noted that the statements made by the pontiff are unlikely to contribute to establishing a constructive dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church, which is especially necessary at this moment.

As explained in the Russian Orthodox Church, during the March conversation, Kirill outlined to Pope Francis his vision of events in Ukraine and the world.

The head of the Moscow Patriarchate, in particular, told the pontiff all the Kremlin horror stories, repeatedly voiced by Putin, about the events in Odessa in 2014 and about the threat to Russia from NATO.

According to Kirill, in May 2014, a "peaceful" demonstration of Russian-speaking residents in Odessa was allegedly "attacked by members of some Nazi groups who started beating demonstrators with sticks. People began to seek refuge in the nearby house of trade unions. At that moment, something terrible happened: this building was closed, and then set on fire."

"In addition, Patriarch Kirill said that at the end of the Soviet era, Russia was reassured that NATO would not move an inch to the East. However, this promise was broken, and even some former Soviet Baltic republics joined NATO. As a result, a very dangerous situation has developed: the borders of NATO are located 130 kilometers from St. Petersburg, and the flight time of missiles is only a few minutes. If Ukraine were accepted into NATO, the flight time to Moscow would also be a few minutes. Russia could not and cannot allow this to happen."

As RISU reported, in an interview with an Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera the Pope said that he talked with Patriarch Kirill for 40 minutes. "For the first twenty minutes, he told me all the excuses for the war. I listened and said, " I don't understand any of this. Brother, we are not members of the government, we cannot use the language of politics, but we have the language of Jesus," Francis said.

The pope also made it clear to Kirill that clergymen of such a rank as they cannot be "altar servants of the state."

Also, Pope Francis cancelled a meeting with Patriarch Kirill that was scheduled for June in Jerusalem.