Moscow Patriarch hails dialogue btw secular, clerical authorities.

BELGOROD, May 2 (Itar-Tass) - Fruitful dialogue between the secular
and clerical authorities in the Belgorod region, located along the border
with Ukraine some 670 kilometers from Moscow helps raises the general
quality of people's life, the Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Kirill
said Saturday during a trip to Belgorod.
"I'm always glad to go to a place where people work hard and where the
results of their work are clearly seen," he said.
His Holiness said he was especially glad to come to the Belgorod
region, the site of the Battle of the Salient of Kursk in 1943, in the
days preceding the 65th anniversary since the end of World War II combat
operations in Europe.
"We'll touch this jubilee right in the place where the victorious
completion of the war was decided and where our victory took contours," he
said.
From the airport, Patriarch Kirill went to the metropolitan Cathedral
of Transfiguration where he venerated the relics of St Joasaph of
Belgorod, one of the most revered Russian saints.
Archbishop John of Belgorod said these relics were found but recently
in the museum of atheism in St Petersburg.
"Over the past fifteen years the land of Belgorod, which previously
was part of the so-called Red Communist Belt /meaning the local voters
gave preference to Communist candidates in elections of all levels -
Itar-Tass/ has fully recuperated by now and is against called the Land of
the Holy White Mounts," he said.
"Patriarch Kirill indicated that changed had settled in people's
consciousness over the past fifteen years," His Holiness Kirill said. "We
open new churches today and rebuild the old ones from ruins so that people
could really feel God's presence in their life."
More than 2,000 people came to the cathedral square to meet and greet
the Patriarch. The path leading to the cathedral was ornamented with white
roseleaves, which is very typical for the traditions of southern Russia.
Sunday, Patriarch Kirill will consecrate a church in one of the city's
bedroom communities and will then go to the town of Prokhorovka, one of
the fields near which became the site of the most grandiose tank battles
in human history in the summer of 1943.
In 1995, a church of St Peter and Paul was built in the Prokhorovka
field under the personal patronage of the USSR's former Prime Minister
Nikolai Ryzhkov.
His Holiness will chant a commemorative service there.
-0-kle