Patriarch Kirill and Patriarch Theodore mourn over people killed in Smolensk air crash

Interfax, April 12, 2010

Alexandria, April 12, Interfax - Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia expressed his condolences over death of Poland’s president, his wife and other members of Polish delegation in an air crash.

"We will pray for those people who died and we believe that Katyn will now remember not only innocently killed people (who were buried there – IF), but also those who were going to commemorate them and died in this pilgrimage," Patriarch Kirill said on Saturday at a meeting with Patriarch Theodore II in Alexandria.

"Our hearts are filled with sincere grief. They were going to Katyn to commemorate their compatriots innocently killed in this place," the Patriarch said.

Patriarch Kirill and Patriarch Theodore II on behalf of the faithful of the Orthodox Churches of Alexandria and Russia wrote a joint message of condolences to acting Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski.

"Katyn – the place of common historical pain for both the Russian and Polish people. Since this day, the commemoration of the thousands of those who were killed in the Katyn forest will be bound up with the blessed memory of all the passengers of the crashed airliners," the message voiced by Patriarch Kirill reads.

The two patriarchs also expressed their condolences to Metropolitan Sawa of Warsaw and All Poland as hierarch of the Polish Orthodox Church Archbishop Miron also died in the air crash.