Pope to meet with Putin today

The Vatican newswire reminded me this morning:

"At 6 p.m. this evening, the Holy Father isscheduled to receive Vadimir Putin, president of the Russian Federation,accompanied by his entourage."

The Associated Press has a little coverage:

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Pope Benedict XVI are set to meet Tuesday in the highest-level Kremlin-Vatican talks in more than three years, a meeting expected to focus on ways of easing tensions between Catholics and Orthodox Christians and finding common ground on moral issues.

The meeting -- the first between Benedict and Putin -- is part of a visit that takes the Russian leader to Italy and Greece this week.

Tensions with the Russian Orthodox Church have stood in the way of a papal visit to Russia. [More...]

There's a slim chance that Putin might invite the Pope to Russia. CNA has more.

There's some disagreement about whether Putin's visit has explicit ecumenical dimensions or not. CWNews has more.