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[h=4]Pope, patriarch meet in Cuba nearly 1,000 years after split[/h]The church leaders will discuss the persecution of Christians in Africa, Middle East.
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Pope Francis met Friday with Patriarch Kirill in the first-ever papal meeting with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, an historic development in the 1,000-year schism that divided Christianity. The meeting took place at Havana's airport. (Feb. AP
Pope Francis meets with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, in Havana on Feb. 12, 2016. The meeting is the first of its kind since an 11th-century schism split Christianity into Western and Eastern branches.(Photo: Gabriel Bouys, AFP/Getty Images)
Despite famine, religious wars, worldwide conflict<span style="color: Red;">*</span>and the spread of civilization, the heads of the Roman Catholic and the Russian Orthodox churches haven't spoken since the Great Schism of 1054 shattered Christendom, so they had<span style="color: Red;">*</span>a lot of catching up to do when they sat down for their<span style="color: Red;">*</span>historic<span style="color: Red;">*</span>meeting Friday afternoon<span style="color: Red;">*</span>in Cuba.
Pope Francis and Patriarch<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Kirill embraced and kissed one another three times on the cheek as they met in the wood-paneled VIP room at Havana's José Martí International Airport. The two church leaders<span style="color: Red;">*</span>then proceeded to a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>pair of straight-backed<span style="color: Red;">*</span>chairs turned at angles.
After another round of handshakes for the cameras and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>greetings with members of their entourages, the two men<span style="color: Red;">*</span>sat and began talking.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Clasping their hands in their laps, both occasionally gestured and nodded as they spoke.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>They were scheduled to hold a two-hour "personal conversation"<span style="color: Red;">*</span>and then sign a joint declaration.
The split between the two churches nearly 1,000 years ago has festered over issues such as the primacy of the pope and accusations by the Russian Orthodox Church that the Catholic Church tries to poach converts in Russia.
No pope has ever visited Russia.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>En route to the historic visit Friday, journalists asked Francis if a visit to the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>nation<span style="color: Red;">*</span>is on his papal bucket list.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>“China and Russia, I have them here,” Francis said, pointing to his heart. “Pray.”
Few people expect Friday's meeting — which took two years of secret planning to pull off<span style="color: Red;">*</span>—<span style="color: Red;">*</span>will wipe away centuries of distrust and suspicion in a few hours,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>but it will be a groundbreaking step toward Catholic-Orthodox relations.
In announcing the visit last week, both sides issued<span style="color: Red;">*</span>a statement<span style="color: Red;">*</span>saying it<span style="color: Red;">*</span>“will mark an important stage in relations between the two churches."
Ecclesiastical and theological disputes, including issues such<span style="color: Red;">*</span>as the communion wafer<span style="color: Red;">*</span>and papal supremacy led to a break between the Greek East and Latin West, giving rise to<span style="color: Red;">*</span>two separate churches —<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic<span style="color: Red;">*</span>—<span style="color: Red;">*</span>after 1054.
Starting in<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the 15th century, the Russian Orthodox Church became an increasingly independent church that remains in communion with the Eastern Orthodox but does not report to it.
The Catholic Church claims 1.2 billion faithful worldwide.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>About two-thirds of the world’s Orthodox Christians belong to the Russian Orthodox Church, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>About 75% of Russia’s 144 million citizens call themselves Russian Orthodox, according to the latest polls, although only a fraction say they are observant.
One important issue drawing<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the two churches closer is the rise of Christian persecution in the Middle East and Africa.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Metropolitan Illarion, foreign policy chief of the Russian Orthodox Church, said recently that<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>treatment of Christians by extremists in the Middle East, in northern and central Africa and in other regions requires "immediate action."
“In this tragic situation, we need to put aside internal disagreements and pool efforts to save Christianity in the regions where it is subject to most severe persecution,” Illarion said.
Another factor changing the landscape is the rise of Russia on the world stage, and the growing influence of the Russian Orthodox Church in the country<span style="color: Red;">*</span>under President Vladimir Putin and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>since the fall of the Soviet Union and collapse of communist rule.
"To have the Roman pope, with his internationally recognized authority, not as a critic but as an ally or at least simply as a neutrally silent figure, is highly attractive to Putin and his associates," said<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Yury Avvakumov, assistant professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame.
"The Moscow Patriarchate has always been an instrument of Russian international policy. Today, the Moscow Patriarchate, with its established international ties, remains an effective transmitter worldwide of the political interests of the Russian rulers."
In a 2012 file photo, Russian Orthodox patriarch Kirill chats with Russian President in the St. Daniel Monastery in Moscow.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Yana Lapikova, AP)
Under Francis, the Vatican has encouraged continuing ecumenical ties with the Orthodox as well as other Christian denominations.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>In November 2014, Francis said he told Kirill: “I’ll go wherever you want. You call me and I’ll go.”
The Vatican has been especially solicitous to<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Russia, especially in largely sidestepping<span style="color: Red;">*</span>criticism of Moscow's<span style="color: Red;">*</span>role in the Ukraine conflict.
The issue is particularly knotty for the Catholic Church, as it touches on<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, the country’s second-largest, which follows eastern church rites but answers to the Holy See. The Russian Orthodox Church has considered western Ukraine its traditional territory and has resented papal influence there.
Cardinal Kurt Koch, the head of the Vatican office that deals with Orthodox relations, said the Ukrainian church will certainly come up in the two-hour private talk<span style="color: Red;">*</span>between Francis and Kirill, the Associated Press reported.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>“It would be impossible to meet without discussing such issues,” he told Vatican Radio. But he said the future significance of the meeting could not be overstated.
“It will certainly forge relations within Orthodoxy: We still don’t have contact with a lot of Orthodox patriarchs, and this meeting could help develop intra-Orthodox relations,” he said. “Improved understanding between Rome and Moscow will certainly have positive effects on the theological dialogue.”
For his part,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Kirill, since taking the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>helm<span style="color: Red;">*</span>in 2009, has overseen<span style="color: Red;">*</span>closer ties between the church and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Kremlin that critics dismiss as the de facto merging of the state and the church.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Putin has openly courted the church, noting his mother baptized him in secret as a child, even allegedly keeping it from his<span style="color: Red;">*</span>father, a low-level Communist<span style="color: Red;">*</span>party member at the workshop level.
In a 2013 documentary,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Putin said the baptism "affected me personally and our family." He has described the church as a vehicle for uniting the Russian people.
"In this sense, the meaning of the church goes beyond the boundaries of the Russian Federation, it helps us to establish good relations with the peoples of other countries, and especially the post-Soviet space, and, of course, the church is performing a very constructive, positive role here,"<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Putin<span style="color: Red;">*</span>added.
The patriarch, who arrived in Cuba on a formal visit Thursday, also met<span style="color: Red;">*</span>with Cuban President Raul Castro on Friday. It was the fourth meeting between the pair,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>according to the Russian state-owned Tass news agency.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Alexander Volkov, the patriarch’s spokesman, said relations between the two men has been "long and good."
Castro also greeted the Pope Friday on the tarmac at the airport.
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