Pope meets with Orthodox leader

Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, greets Pope Francis on Friday at Jose Marti Airport in Havana. The meeting was the fi rst ever for a pontiff and the head of the Russian church. “We are brothers,” the pope said at the start of the three-hour encounter.
Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, greets Pope Francis on Friday at Jose Marti Airport in Havana. The meeting was the fi rst ever for a pontiff and the head of the Russian church. “We are brothers,” the pope said at the start of the three-hour encounter.

HAVANA -- Pope Francis met Friday with Patriarch Kirill in the first-ever meeting between a pontiff and the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, a historic development in the 1,000-year schism that has divided Christianity.

"We are brothers," Francis said as he embraced Kirill in the small, wood-paneled VIP room of Havana's airport, where the three-hour encounter took place.

"Now things are easier," Kirill agreed as he and the pope exchanged three kisses on the cheek. "This is the will of God," the pope said.

The religious leaders' meeting and signing of a joint declaration was decades in the making and evoked Francis' reputation as a risk-taking statesman who values dialogue, bridge-building and rapprochement.

In the 30-point statement, the two leaders declared themselves ready to take all necessary measures to overcome their historical differences, saying "we are not competitors, but brothers."

While Francis' meeting with Kirill was hailed by many as an important ecumenical breakthrough, Francis has also come under criticism for essentially allowing himself to be used by a Russia eager to assert itself among Orthodox Christians and on the world stage.

Francis and Kirill also called for political leaders to act on the single most important issue of shared concern between the Catholic and Orthodox churches today: the plight of Christians in Iraq and Syria who are being killed and driven from their homes by the Islamic State group.

"In many countries of the Middle East and North Africa, entire families of our brothers and sisters in Christ are being exterminated, entire villages and cities," the declaration said.

The declaration was signed in the uniquely ideal location of Cuba: far removed from the Catholic-Orthodox turf battles in Europe, a country that is Catholic and familiar to Latin America's first pope, but equally familiar to the Russian church given its anti-American and Soviet legacy.

The Vatican is hoping the meeting will improve relations with other Orthodox churches and spur progress in dialogue over theological differences that have divided East from West ever since the Great Schism of 1054 split Christianity.

But Orthodox observers say Kirill's willingness to finally meet with a pope has less to do with any new ecumenical impulse than grandstanding within the West and the Orthodox Church at a time when Russia is increasingly under fire over its military actions in Syria and Ukraine. Kirill, a spiritual adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin, leads the most powerful of the 14 independent Orthodox churches that will meet this summer in Greece in the first such pan-Orthodox synod in centuries.

Popes as far back as Paul VI in the 1960s and '70s have met with the ecumenical patriarch in Istanbul, who is the "first among equals" in the 250 million-strong Orthodox Church and the only patriarch who can speak for global Orthodoxy. But the Russian Church is the biggest, wealthiest and most powerful in Orthodoxy, and has always kept its distance from Rome.

Catholic and Orthodox split in the Great Schism of 1054 and have remained estranged over a host of issues, including the primacy of the pope and, more recently, Russian Orthodox accusations that the Catholic Church was poaching converts in former Soviet lands. Those tensions have prevented previous popes from ever meeting with the Russian patriarch, even though the Vatican has long insisted that it was merely ministering to tiny Catholic communities.

"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 ahead of the pan-Orthodox council," said Cardinal Kurt Koch, the head of the Vatican office that deals with Orthodox relations. "Improved understanding between Rome and Moscow will certainly have positive effects on the theological dialogue."

Immediately following his meeting with Kirill, Francis flew to Mexico City to begin a five-day visit during which he plans to bring a message of solidarity with the victims of drug violence, human trafficking and discrimination to some of that country's most violent and poverty-stricken regions.

Francis was greeted with a rock concert-like show with blue floodlights illuminating a stage and bandstands, and crowds waving yellow handkerchiefs. Mariachis serenaded him as his chartered plane pulled to a stop, and people shouted "Brother Francis, you're already Mexican."

President Enrique Pena Nieto and his wife met Francis on a red carpet.

Francis was not scheduled to speak publicly, but before he retired for the night, he approached a crowd of wellwishers, accepting two white roses and invoking an impromptu prayer for those gathered.

Among his stops will be the crime-ridden Mexico City suburb of Ecatepec and the mainly indigenous southern state of Chiapas, which has the country's highest poverty rate. There he will celebrate Mass and present a decree authorizing the use of indigenous languages in liturgy.

Francis will end his trip in the northern city of Ciudad Juarez, where he will pray at the border for all who have died trying to cross into the United States.

A Section on 02/13/2016

Upcoming Events