Pope Benedict XVI met this Saturday in the Vatican with the president of Kosovo.

That same day, the Vatican released a statement stipulating that the meeting did “not represent any change in the position of the Holy See vis-a-vis the definitive juridical status of Kosovo.”

In other words, the pope is not endorsing Kosovo’s declaration of independence, widely expected to happen soon, over strong objections from Serbia and its ally Russia.

Presumably the Vatican’s statement is meant to reassure the Russian Orthodox Church, with whose patriarch Benedict hopes to arrange a historic meeting-and whose positions on political matters tend to be indistinguishable from those of the Russian government.