Church-state relations and the Iraqi war were on the agenda
when John Paul II met with the president of the Senate of the Russian
Federation.
Following the papal audience today, Sergey Mironov met with Cardinal Angelo
Sodano, Vatican secretary of state, according to Vatican spokesman Joaquín
Navarro-Valls.
On several occasions, the Vatican has protested publicly the Russian
Federation's expulsion of Bishop Jerzy Mazur, of St. Joseph's Diocese in
Irkutsk, in eastern Siberia, as well as of at least five priests.
The expulsions followed the establishment of four Catholic dioceses in Russia
in February 2002.