VATICAN CITY, DEC. 7, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI will send a delegation to participate in the funeral of Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia, who died Thursday at 79.
The members of the high-level delegation will be Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, retired president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and Pontifical Council Cor Unum, Archbishop Antonio Mennini, the Holy See's representative to the Russian Federation, Jesuit Father Milan Zust, an official of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and Monsignor Ante Jozif, secretary of the nunciature in Moscow.
The patriarch's funeral will be held Tuesday at the Cathedral of the Epiphany in Moscow.
On Saturday the Holy Russian Orthodox Synod named Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, president of the Department for External Ecclesiastical Relations of the Patriarchate of Moscow, as the interim leader of the Orthodox Church.
The body of Alexy II has been lying in state in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior since Saturday to permit the Orthodox faithful an opportunity to pay their respects.
ZE08120707 - 2008-12-07
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Papal Delegation to Attend Funeral of Alexy II
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