Pope may meet Patriarch Kirill at September Kazakh meeting

By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican says Pope Francis will travel to Kazakhstan in September for an interfaith conference. The visit may give him a chance to meet with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, which would be significant given Kirill’s justification for Russia’s war in Ukraine. Francis called off a planned encounter with Kirill in June in Jerusalem because of the diplomatic fallout it would have created. The Kazakh government is hosting a “Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions” on Sept. 14-15 in the capital, Nur-Sultan. Kirill has been invited and the Moscow Patriarchate has said he would attend. On Tuesday, the Vatican said Francis too would attend.