Pope Francis will visit Kazakhstan in September to attend an event regularly organized by the Central Asian nation's authorities that will also be attended by the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill.
The Vatican said on August 1 that the pontiff will be in the Kazakh capital, Nur-Sultan, on September 13-15 to attend the VII Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions. Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev's office also announced the visit.
The Vatican statement did not mention Kirill but Francis has said several times that he hopes to meet with the Russian Patriarch at the event.
Since the beginning of Russia's ongoing unprovoked invasion of Ukraine launched on February 24, Kirill has made a number of statements in solidarity with the policy of the Russian authorities, prompting Pope Francis to warn the patriarch against becoming President Vladimir "Putin's altar boy."
More than 150 Russian Orthodox clerics called for a stop to war in an open letter on March 1. Kirill was not among those who signed it.
