The Vatican is sending its two senior ecumenical officials to Sunday’s inauguration ceremony in Moscow of Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and Bishop Brian Farrell, will attend the ceremony, the RIA Novosti news service reported.

An official with the patriarchy who disclosed this new also said that Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone also might attend the ceremony, but the source said this had not been officially confirmed.

Rome’s desire to send senior representatives to Moscow for Patriarch Kirill’s inauguration reflects the importance the Vatican attaches to seeking deeper unity with the Russian Orthodox Church, which is the largest national church in the Orthodox Communion.

It also reflects the personal association the Catholic Church has had with Patriarch Kirill, who has served as chairman of the External Church Relations Department of the Moscow Patriarchate since November 1989.

Pope Benedict XVI touched on both areas in the text of the Jan. 28 telegram he sent to Kirill following his election this week as patriarch.

“I have received with gladness the news of your election as patriarch of Moscow and all Russia,” the Pope said. “I warmly congratulate you and wish you every strength and joy in the fulfillment of the great task which lies before you as you guide the Church over which you now preside along the path of spiritual growth and unity.”

Said the Holy Father, “In prayer, I ask the Lord to grant you an abundance of wisdom to discern his will, to persevere in loving service of the people entrusted to your patriarchal ministry, and to sustain them in fidelity to the Gospel and the great traditions of Russian Orthodoxy. May the Almighty also bless your efforts to maintain communion among the Orthodox Churches and to seek that fullness of communion which is the goal of Catholic-Orthodox collaboration and dialogue.”

A Jan. 28 communiqué from the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity also expressed Rome’s happiness about the election of “a Patriarch with whom we have maintained fraternal relations for many years, and who met the Holy Father immediately following his election in April 2005, and again in the months of May 2006 and December 2007,” Vatican Information Service reported.

“We trust we will be able to continue together down the path of mutual understanding we have already begun,” the communiqué said. “We do not, of course, wish to lose sight of the difficulties that still remain, but we are ready and willing to co- operate in the social and cultural fields in order to bear witness to Christian values while, nonetheless, not forgetting that the ultimate aim of dialogue is the realization of the testament of Jesus Christ our Lord: the full communion of all His disciples.”