WORLD : Gorbachev Writes to Pope, Suggests Meeting During Upcoming Italy Visit
Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev has written to Pope John Paul II to express his interest in meeting the pontiff for a full review of Vatican-Soviet relations, a Vatican official said today.
In Moscow, Soviet sources said Gorbachev is expected to visit Italy on Nov. 25.
A meeting between Gorbachev and the Polish-born Pope has been viewed as likely during the Soviet leader’s stop in Italy, but there had been no confirmation by either side.
Such a meeting would be of historic proportions, the first between the head of a Soviet Communist Party that disparages religion and the leader of the world’s 850 million Roman Catholics.
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