MOSCOW, September 6 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Orthodox Church has not changed its position on its relations with the Vatican, the Moscow Patriarchy said Tuesday.
Vladimir Vigilyansky, the head of the Patriarchy's press service, said that this issue had dominated a meeting between Alexy II, the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, and Nikolai Sadchikov, Russia's new Ambassador at the Vatican.
"The patriarch reaffirmed the position the Russian Church has taken in recent years."
The head of the Russian church said a meeting between Russian Orthodox and Vatican officials would not take place until Catholic clergymen's missionary activities in what the Russian Church described as its canonical territories, and the spread of the Uniate Church's influence in Ukraine, were checked.
The patriarchy said the Ukrainian Uniate Church had recently moved its cathedra from Lviv, western Ukraine, to Kiev, the capital, which had further damaged relations between the Orthodox and Catholic churches.
There have been no official meetings between the leaders of the Orthodox and Catholic churches in the history of the churches' relations, Alexy II said. If such a meeting is to take place, it must bring significant results, he said.
