Pope Leo met with Metropolitan Anthony, a senior official of the Russian Orthodox Church, on Saturday in what is being seen as a potential effort to ease strained ties between the two churches amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.
The meeting, held at the Vatican, included Anthony—who chairs the Russian Church’s department of external relations—and five other senior clerics. The Holy See confirmed the audience in a brief statement but offered no further details.
The encounter comes at a delicate time for the Catholic Church’s relationship with the Russian Orthodox Church, which has been deeply affected by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Since assuming the papacy in May, Pope Leo has made global peace a central focus of his mission, repeatedly calling for an end to conflicts around the world.
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Earlier this month, the Pope met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and expressed the Vatican’s willingness to host peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia. However, Moscow has dismissed the Vatican’s role as a neutral mediator, citing its location within NATO-aligned Italy—a nation that has supported Kyiv since the war began.
In his first phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin in early June, Pope Leo urged the Kremlin to take tangible steps toward ending the conflict.
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Yet, efforts at diplomacy have been complicated by the Russian Orthodox Church’s open support for the invasion. Patriarch Kirill, the Church’s leader, remains one of the most vocal religious backers of Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine.
Saturday’s meeting may signal a cautious attempt by the Vatican to reopen lines of dialogue with Moscow’s religious leadership, even as political and moral divisions deepen. While no public statements have emerged from either side following the audience, the symbolic importance of the encounter has not gone unnoticed.
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