Before the Angelus prayer on August 22nd, 2004, Saint Pope John Paul II remarked that August is an important month for many Marian churches and shrines, which organize special celebrations and receive numerous pilgrims.

The Pope took the opportunity to announce that the Icon of Our Lady of Kazan, which had been taken out of Russia in the 20th century and which eventually made its way to the Vatican, will be returned to Russia and given to the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II that week.

The Icon was taken to Russia by a Vatican delegation consisting of Cardinal Walter Kasper, head of the Pontifical Unity Council for promoting Christian Unity, and Cardinal Theodore McCarrick from the USA on August 28th, 2004, Feast of the Dormition of Our Lady according to the Orthodox liturgical calendar.


Nicolas, Cardinal Walter Kasper, Myrna, Bishop Bonny

At the invitation of Syriak-Orthodox Patriarch Zakka Iwaz I for a 5th meeting in February 2008, Cardinal Walter Kasper along with Bishop Johan Bonny, a Belgian prelate, headed to St Ephrem Syrian Orthodox Monastery in Maarrat Sednaya in Syria to meet with delegates of the non-Chalcedonian Oriental Orthodox Churches (Armenian, Coptic, Syrian, Ethiopian) for a theological dialogue. Cardinal Kasper was later privately introduced to the Soufanieh Phenomenon, and agreed to meet with Myrna and Nicolas for only 10 minutes. Their meeting lasted 90 minutes!