Russian church favors further dialogue with Vatican

Moscow, Russia - Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad Kirill has confirmed that the Russian Orthodox Church is committed to continuing its dialogue with the Vatican.

"Our position is that this dialogue, which has been broadly discussed by the Catholic Church as well, should continue. Our commission is an adequate instrument of such a dialogue," Metropolitan Kirill, who heads the Moscow Patriarchate's foreign relations department, told a news conference at Interfax on Tuesday.

"In our address to the Catholic Church, we again suggest launching a serious dialogue and reviving our joint working group that looked into conflicts. To my regret, the group's work has been virtually stalled through no fault of ours," he said.