Patriarch Kirill to Discuss Development of Kyiv into World’s Orthodox Center of Pilgrimage during Visit

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia declared his readiness to discuss with the Ukrainian authorities the possibilities of development of Kyiv as one of the centers of the Orthodox pilgrimage during his forthcoming visit.

“We have to revive the traditions of the orthodox pilgrimage and Kyiv has to become one of its world centers”, stated the patriarch in the interview published on Wednesday on the website of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

According to him, today every year millions of tourists from Russia travel across the territories of Spain, Great Britain, Italy, France, get acquainted with the culture and history of these countries, while Kyiv and other centers of our Church and culture are not among the popular routes.
Besides, Patriarch Kirill is ready to discuss with the Ukrainian state administration a number of other issues, important for the believers of Ukraine, in particular, “the problem of the legal entity status for our Church, the questions of restitutions of the church property, expropriated by the atheist regime, teaching of the orthodox disciplines at schools and education establishments, support of the Church at the legislative level in her carrying out of the mission of the social ministry”.

“All these questions to more or lesser extent concern all the post-soviet territory, but there is an experience of their solution in many countries we would like to discuss”, Patriarch Kirill stated.

Source: