by Nina Achmatova

Bishop Jurkovic arrived in Russia on 5 May. At Mass on Sunday at the Cathedral of the Mother of God he presented himself to the Catholic community. A meeting with the Bishop Hilarion planned for this week.

Moscow (AsiaNews)  The new Apostolic Nuncio to the Russian Federation, Mgr. Ivan Jurkovic has already met with the Catholic community in Moscow and is set to also meet with leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church.  The Vatican ambassador arrived a week ago and has already submitted a letter of credentials to the Russian authorities and concelebrated Mass last May 8 in Moscow with Archbishop Mgr. Paolo Pezzi.

In a greeting to the faithful gathered in the Cathedral of the Mother of God, the nuncio said he was "cheered in return to Moscow and find a lively and strengthened community ". Fifty-eight years old, and of Slovenian origin, Jurkovic had already worked in the Russian capital between 1992 and 1996, as secretary to the Holy See representation, before being accredited as the first nuncio in Belarus and then Ukraine. This week - announced the nunciature - Msgr. Jurkovic is already scheduled to meet with Bishop Hilarion Alfeye, Head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate.

Jurkovic will build on the legacy of Mgr. Antonio Mennini, who for over eight years has had the merit of standardizing stable relations between Russia and the Holy See with, among other things, the establishment of full diplomatic relations.

• RUSSIA
• VATICAN
• Jurkovic
• Apostolic
• Nuncio
• Russian
• Federation
• Cathedral
• Mother
• of
• God