Intet møte mellom Paven og russisk-ortodoks patriark under pavebesøket i september

ASSOCIATED PRESS - Saturday 20 July 1996

Russian patriarch declines meeting with pope

BUDAPEST, Hungary -- The head of Russia's Orthodox Church has turned down an invitation to meet with Pope John Paul II when he visits Hungary this fall, the state news agency said Friday.

The pontiff's visit will take him to northwestern Hungary to mark the 1,000th anniversary of a Benedictine monastery in Pannonhalma and to the western city of Gyoer to meet with Hungarian bishops.

Hungarian church officials had also invited Patriarch Alexy II of the Russian Orthodox church to Hungary. The proposed meeting was seen as a way of overcoming tensions over what the Orthodox Church sees as overzealous missionary work by Roman Catholics in Russia -- and possibly as an opportunity to plan a historic papal trip to Moscow.

The patriarch had proposed the date for a meeting with the pope, who will be in Hungary on Sept. 6 and 7, the MTI state news agency said.

But Pannonhalma Abbot Asztrik Varszegi and Gyoergy Nanovsky, Hungary's ambassador to Russia, said Friday that the Russian Orthodox Church leadership had decided Thursday to turn down the invitation.

Conservative Orthodox leaders feared that the pope was trying to extend Catholic influence over their church, Nanovsky said.