Pope to meet with India’s Orthodox Church leader

By Deborah Castellano Lubov

Rome, Sept 10, 2023: The supreme head of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church of India, Baselios Marthoma Mathews III, Catholicos of the East and Metropolitan, will visit Pope Francis on September 11.

The Vatican Press Office said on September 8 that after the private meeting with the Pope, the Catholicos will visit the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity.

On the day prior to the encounter with the Pope, the Catholicos will celebrate a Eucharistic Liturgy at the Papal Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls for the faithful of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church community living in Rome.

The visit will be the first official meeting in the Vatican of the Catholicos, elected in 2021, on the 10th anniversary of the visit of his predecessor, Baselios Marthoma Paulose II.

It also falls on the 40th anniversary of the first visit to Rome of a Catholicos of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church of India.

vaticannews.va