Hitting the news today is the report that Russian Patriarch Kiril I is visiting Poland this Thursday.
Reporting the story on the Russian Orthodox side is Prawoslawie:
The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church and Patriarch of Moscow and all the Rus, Kirill I will come to Poland on Thursday on a visit which raises hopes for a new opening in the Polish-Russian relations.
During his visit, scheduled for Aug. 16-19, Kirill I and the head of the Conference of the Polish Episcopate Jozef Michalik will sign an address to both nations calling for mutual reconciliation and forgiveness.
The address may “open a new era in Polish-Russian bilateral relations,” the daily Polska The Times wrote citing head of Catholic information agency KAI Marcin Przeciszewski.
The address is compared to the letter of Polish Bishops to the German Bishops from 1965, which constituted a stepping stone in Polish-German reconciliation after the WWII.
Representatives of the Catholic Church in Poland say this will be an unprecedented event, and the first ever visit of the Russian Orthodox Church patriarch to Poland.
Russian Patriarch Kiril I (source: www.kremlin.ru)
It would take far too long to digress entirely into my thoughts here, but the best shorthand I can give is that for years I have considered Russia and Poland to be twin brothers in many respects throughout history. I mean twins like Romulus and Remus, other times merely brothers albeit like Cain and Abel. But, both having been brought to Christ have a new life, a new destiny. Sort of like Romulus and Remus forging the foundation of Rome, so it is with the eventual reconciliation of Poland and Russia to the rest of the world.
There’s a lot to this story. A lot.
Most notably, the Gospel for this past Sunday on the Eastern calendar is that parable of the unforgiving servant. Thus, in the Oriental Churches, the theme of this past week’s homilies were on forgiveness, and Wednesday’s Feast of the Dormition – a day on which both Russia and Poland have had numerous miracles at the hands of Our Lady – especially wherein Our Lady has shown great grace or miraculous protection on August 15th — long before there was a dogmatic pronouncement.
There’s something incredible afoot in this little act.
This article, HOLY COW! Something Apocryphal — Russian Patriarch to Visit Poland Day after Dormition is a post from The Bellarmine Forum.
https://bellarmineforum.org/holy-cow-something-apocryphal-russian-patriarch-to-visit-poland-day-after-dormition/
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