Jean-Louis Pierre Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue in the Roman Curia, to attend the V Congress of World Religions in Astana

Pope Francis Photo courtesy of cotidianul.ro

Pope Francis will not be attending the V Congress of World Religions to be held in Astana, Kazakhstan’s capital city, next week, a Tengrinews.kz journalist reports, citing Marat Azilkhanov, the country’s Vice Minister of Culture and Sports, as saying.

“Jean-Louis Pierre Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue in the Roman Curia, will be representing the Pope at the event. For Kazakhstan it is high representation”, Mr. Azilkhanov told a briefing.

Ikram Adyrbekov, Chairman of the Committee for Foreign Affairs, Defense and Security in the country’s Senate, emphasized that Kazakhstan and Vatican had been enjoying constructive relations based on trust and mutual understanding.