VATICAN CITY — With a gesture of reverence for a famous Russian icon, Pope John Paul II and Russian President Vladimir Putin underscored their commitment to improving relations between the Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches.

After the Nov. 5 meeting, Putin telephoned Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexei II, and an aide to the patriarch expressed hope the next day for better relations with the Vatican, Russian news agencies said.

The ongoing tension between the Vatican and the Orthodox Patriarchate of Moscow was one of the major topics of discussion during the Pope's Nov. 5 meeting with Putin, said Vatican spokesman Joaquín Navarro-Valls.

“The Holy Father wanted the sacred icon of Our Lady of Kazan to be present during this meeting,” Navarro-Valls added.

John Paul had his aides bring the icon of the Mother of God of Kazan, an icon revered by Russian believers that usually hangs in the Pope's private chapel, into the Vatican Library for the meeting. The Holy Father repeatedly has said he wants to deliver the icon personally to a top official of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Putin watched as the Pope blessed the icon, and then the Russian leader himself kissed it, Vatican interpreters said.

According to Russian reporters who were in the room, the Holy Father then said in Russian, “I want to thank President Putin for everything he has done to bring the Russian Orthodox and Catholic Churches closer together, and for peace in the world.”

Patriarch Alexei

Putin's spokesman, Alexei Gromov, told Russian reporters that Putin telephoned Patriarch Alexei from Rome to report on his Vatican meeting with John Paul, Itar-Tass news agency reported.

Father Vsevolod Chaplin, No. 2 in the patriarchate's Department of External Relations, told Interfax he saw signs of “changes for the better in the position of the Vatican in relations with the Russian Orthodox Church.”

Relations between the two Churches, strained since the collapse of communism by disputes over Church property and alleged Catholic proselytizing, worsened in February 2002 when the Pope created four full-scale dioceses in the Russian Federation. Russian Orthodox officials have protested the establishment of the dioceses in Russia as a sign that the Catholic Church considers Russia to be mission territory.

The Orthodox have similar jurisdictions outside Russia.

“We know that there are people in the Vatican who show good will toward our Church. They say that the Catholic Church will be our partner, not a rival, and does not intend to convert the Orthodox faithful to Catholics,” Father Chaplin said. “A change of this kind in the Vatican position and the practice of the Catholic Church would open the way to reconstruction of good relations between the two Churches.”

No Invitation

The Russian reporters present at the Vatican meeting said Putin did not invite John Paul to visit Russia. Patriarch Alexei has said repeatedly the Vatican must first take “concrete action” to meet Orthodox complaints.

Before leaving on his state visit to Italy, Putin told Italian reporters in Moscow he wanted to help end the dispute between the Vatican and the Orthodox Church but that Russia would defend its faith and identity.

“I see my task not in ensuring the Pope's visit to Russia but in helping these steps toward unity,” Putin said before leaving. “Naturally, it would be possible only if the Churches reach an agreement.”

The Vatican was not surprised or disappointed that Putin did not renew the invitation his predecessors had made, said a Vatican official involved in relations with the Russians.

“The Pope has never said, ‘I must go to Moscow,’ but he has insisted that Christianity itself and the European continent need to breathe with two lungs — that of the Christian East and the Christian West,” the official said.

While Putin and the Pope were meeting, Navarro-Valls said, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican secretary of state, met with Igor Ivanov, the Russian foreign minister.

“Also in that meeting,” the spokesman said, “there was an exchange of opinions about the situation of the ecumenical dialogue between Catholics and Orthodox.”

(CNS, RNS and Zenit contributed to this report.)