Source: Interfax
Moscow, May 12, Interfax – President of the Cuban Council of State and Council of Ministers, Raul Castro, has invited Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia to visit the republic.
“It is a great pleasure for me to meet with you again. We always recall with pleasure your first visit to Cuba and we hope it will not be the last one,” the Cuban leader said at a meeting with the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Patriarchal Chambers in Moscow.
Patriarch Kirill has already been to Cuba, but that was before he became Patriarch, Castro said. “Now we want to welcome you as the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church. You can consider these words an invitation that we will formally confirm later,” the Cuban leader said.
Patriarch Kirill thanked him for the invitation, saying there are several Russians and Russian-speakers living in Cuba, who are mainly Orthodox believers. “I would like to express my gratitude once again to the Commander Fidel and you for taking the decision to build an Orthodox church. Today this church is working for the Russian-Cuban relationship,” the Russian Church leader said.
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