Pope and Russian Orthodox leader to hold historic encounter in Cuba

Pope and Russian Orthodox leader to hold historic encounter in Cuba
By Andrew Roth and Brian Murphy February 5 at 8:18 AM

MOSCOW — Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill I of the Russian Orthodox
Church will meet in Cuba for the first time next Friday as part of an
effort to heal a schism that has divided Christianity between East and
West for nearly 1,000 years.

The meeting, the first between a sitting pope and Russian patriarch,
will take place at José Martí International Airport, where the two will
sign a joint declaration. Pope Francis will fly to Cuba before traveling
on to Mexico for a six-day tour of the country.

"This meeting of the Primates of the Catholic Church and the Russian
Orthodox Church, after a long preparation, will be the first in history
and will mark an important stage in relations between the two Churches,"
said a joint press release.

"The Holy See and the Moscow Patriarchate hope that it will also be a
sign of hope for all people of good will. They invite all Christians to
pray fervently for God to bless this meeting, that it may bear good
fruits," it added.

Patriarch Kirill is scheduled to arrive next Thursday in Havana for an
11-day tour of South America, which will also include stops in Paraguay,
Chile, and Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo in Brazil.

The meeting would culminate decades of overtures seeking to bridge
suspicions and rifts that span both historical and contemporary
grievances, which have so far blocked any papal visit to Russia.

Among the obstacles that have complicated deeper dialogue are long-held
claims by Moscow that the Roman Catholics have been seeking to expand
Rome-affiliated churches in traditional Christian Orthodox areas.

Eastern Rite churches — which retain Orthodox traditions but are loyal
to the Vatican — have been one of the thorniest issues blocking attempts
to heal the divisions between the world's Roman Catholics and more than
200 million Orthodox.

Orthodox Christians are spread among various churches and patriarches.
But the Russian church is the largest and carries major influence among
the Orthodox heirarchy.

Although Catholics and Orthodox remain estranged on other issues —
including married clergy and the centralized power of the Vatican —
there have been significant moves over the generations toward closer
interactions and understanding.

The first major breakthrough came in 1964 when Pope Paul VI met in
Jerusalem with Patriarch Athenagoras in the first encounter between a
pope and Orthodox patriarch in more than 500 years. The meeting led to
the lifting of mutual excommunication edicts and the Catholic-Orthodox
Joint Declaration of 1965 that called for greater harmony among the
churches.

An apostolic letter by John Paul II in 1995 encouraged unity between the
two branches of Christianity and opened the way for a historic visit to
Rome by Bartholomew I, who is based in Istanbul and is considered the
"first among equals" of the Orthodox patriarchs.

In 2001, Pope John Paul II made a landmark trip to mostly Orthodox
Greece and issued an apology for the ravages of the Fourth Crusade,
which in the early 13th century sacked Constantinople, now Istanbul, the
seat of the Eastern church.

In 2006, Benedict XVI was hosted by the Bartholomew, known as the
ecumenical patriarchate, in Istanbul in a visit that brought protests
from some archconservative Orthodox but generally opened room for more
exchanges.

The Cuba encounter also appears to show evolving views by the Kremlin
toward the Vatican under Francis, the first pope from Latin America, who
has been critical of Western-style capitalism and other social ills.

The Vatican has been careful with its comments against Russia's actions
in Ukraine, including its annexation of Ukraine in 2014, but has
indirectly criticized Moscow and others over failures to end Syria's
civil war. Russia is a key backer of Syria's government and last year
began airstrikes to aid Syrian forces.

Previous pontiffs, meanwhile, have been appraised with a possibily
harsher eye by the Kremlin. The Polish-born Pope John Paul II directly
challenged the former Soviet Union during his early years in his papacy.
His successor, Benedict, was often seen through the prism of his former
role as the Vatican's chief overseer of Catholic doctrine.


Murphy reported from Washington. The Associated Press contributed to
this report.

Source: Pope and Russian Orthodox leader to hold historic encounter in
Cuba - The Washington Post -
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/pope-and-russian-orthodox-leader-to-hold-historic-encounter-in-cuba/2016/02/05/1bba6e78-cbfe-11e5-a7b2-5a2f824b02c9_story.html