Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox leader to hold historic meeting in Cuba

Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox leader to hold historic meeting in Cuba

Russian Orthodox leader Patriarch Kirill arrived in Cuba Thursday
Pope Francis arrives in Havana Friday for the meeting
The Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Churches split in 1054
BY MIMI WHITEFIELD
mwhitefield@miamiherald.com

Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill will meet in Havana
on Friday, the first rapprochement between the two churches in the
nearly 1,000 years since Christianity split between East and West.

Despite a separation that dates back to the Great Schism of 1054, the
Russian Orthodox Church has said that Islamic extremist attacks on
Christian populations in the Middle East and North and Central Africa
require urgent measures and closer cooperation between the Christian
churches.

"In the present tragic situation, it is necessary to put aside
international disagreements and unite efforts for saving Christianity in
the regions where it is subjected to the most severe persecution,"
Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk said in Moscow during a news
conference on the patriarch's trip.

Patriarch Kirill was greeted by Cuban leader Raúl Castro when he arrived
in Cuba on Thursday for the first leg of a 12-day visit that also takes
him to Brazil, Chile and Paraguay. Pope Francis arrives Friday afternoon
for the meeting, which will take place at José Martí International
Airport, before he continues on to Mexico. The pontiff will be in Mexico
until Thursday.

Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said 2:15 p.m. to 4:25
p.m. had been set aside for the meeting between the two religious
leaders. They're expected to sign a joint declaration in Russian and
Italian at its conclusion and to exchange gifts.

Such a meeting, which had been in the works for a couple years, had been
a dream of Pope John Paul II and even before that the Roman Catholic
Church had made overtures, but Russian Orthodox leaders remained
suspicious. The main difference that led to the division with Rome was
that the Eastern Churches didn't accept the pope's authority.

The meeting of the two leaders "signals Pope Francis' ongoing commitment
to ecumenical rapprochement with other Christian Churches," said Rev.
Jean-Pierre Ruiz, an associate professor at St. John's University.

In a joint statement issued last week, the Vatican and the Patriarchate
of Moscow called the meeting "an important stage in relations between
the two churches."

John Paul II had said that the Catholic Church must "breathe with two
lungs" — rather than one lung for the Latin Rite and one for the Eastern
Churches. Although he very much wanted an invitation to meet with
Russian Orthodox Church leaders, he never got it.

Relations soured over the Russian Orthodox Church's contention that
Catholic missionaries were proselytizing in the Moscow Patriarchate and
conflicts over church policy in the Ukraine where some Russian Orthodox
think the Eastern Churches, especially the Greek Catholic Church that
follows Eastern rites but answers to the Holy See, is too pro-Western
and anti-Russian.

Metropolitan Hilarion called the dispute in Ukraine "a never-healing
bloody wound that prevents the full normalization of relations between
the two churches."

Cuba was chosen as neutral ground for the historic meeting.

"Pope Francis' visit to Havana to meet with Russian Orthodox Patriarch
Kirill of Moscow is a significant moment for his papacy and another big
moment for Cuba," said Peter Schechter, director of the Atlantic
Council's Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center.

He noted that not only would the meeting be about reconciliation "after
1,000 years of separation between Europe's largest Christian
denominations," but "it is also an enticing hint at both churches'
concern about the fate of Christian communities in the Middle East."

During his time in Cuba, Patriarch Kirill plans to meet with both Raúl
and Fidel Castro and will celebrate mass Sunday at Havana's Russian
Orthodox Church, Our Lady of Kazan, located in Old Havana near Cuba's port.

Members of Our Lady of Kazan, as well as Cuban members of Havana's Greek
Orthodox Church, spent Thursday morning dusting religious objects,
cleaning chandeliers and getting the church ready for the patriarch's
official visit.

Konstantine Marabian, a Moscow businessman who had come to Cuba to help
get the church ready, was scraping paint off the steps of the church,
which got a fresh coat of paint in preparation for the visit.

"We would be very happy if the patriarch would be happy," he said.

Our Lady of Kazan, which was completed in 2008, is a special place for
Patriarch Kirill. He not only supervised construction of the church but
also consecrated it.

The patriarch's visit "is the most amazing blessing we can have," said
Helen Elizabeth, 20. She was baptized in the Greek Orthodox Church in
2004, but decided to help in the preparations after the Russian Orthodox
Church reached out to her church. "We are brothers," she said. "If they
ask for help, we should help."

"For the Cuban people, this is amazing. Two religious icons come here to
Cuba," said Ismael Stauvos, 23, who also is Greek Orthodox. "When the
pope comes, it's like God's blessing." Pope Francis last visited three
Cuban cities — Havana, Holguín and Santiago — in September.

Miami Herald special correspondent Spencer Parts contributed to this report.

Source: Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox leader to hold historic
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