Pope, Orthodox cleric agree to defend Christianity

ROME, May 19 (Reuters) A senior cleric from the Russian Orthodox Church said today Pope Benedict agreed that the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox Church should work together to defend Christianity in an increasingly secular Europe.

In a latest sign that once icy relations between the two churches are thawing, Metropolitan Kirill, the head of external relations for the Moscow Patriarchate, made the comment after delivering a message to Benedict from Patriarch Alexiy II.

''We must give a common message to the whole world,'' Kirill told a news conference a day after the meeting.

''In the historic moment in which Europe is not recognising its Christian roots, the two churches must work together in order to revitalise these Christian roots.'' He added Pope Benedict was in ''complete agreement''.

The Russian Orthodox Church, which split from Rome in the Great Schism of 1054, had chilly relations with the late John Paul II, a Pole who had campaigned against communism and sought in vain to visit post-communist Russia.

But senior Vatican officials have said they are working towards an eventual meeting between Benedict and Alexiy. Kirill was one of the most senior clerics from the Russian Orthodox Church to meet Benedict since he was elected in 2005.

Kirill said it was too early to talk about a meeting but that Benedict shared Alexiy's position on the need to defend human moral values and the family.

''Everything that is happening now is dialogue we hope will give fruit,'' he added.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Russian Orthodox Church has made a strong comeback, although it is very sensitive to attempts by other churches to expand in Russia.

One of the main sticking points in relations has been Russian Orthodox suspicion that the Vatican tried to win over Orthodox believers to Catholicism after the Soviet collapse.

After a break of more than four years, theological dialogue between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches resumed in December with a meeting of an international Catholic-Orthodox theological commission. The first plenary session is due in September.

Kirill said the bilateral meeting would focus on specific issues that needed to be resolved in order for Benedict and Alexiy to meet.

He declined to say what those were.

Reuters SK GC0106