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UP FRONTSaturday 13 February 2016
‘Finally:’ Pope meets with Russian Orthodox leader
NICOLE WINFIELD all necessary measures to entire villages and cities,” a country that is Catholic this summer in Greece in
Associated Press overcome their historical the declaration said. and familiar to Latin Amer- the first such pan-Orthodox
HAVANA (AP) — With a differences, saying “we are While the meeting has ica’s first pope, but equal- synod in centuries.
hug and an exclamation not competitors, but broth- been hailed by many as ly familiar to the Russian “This isn’t benevolence.
of “Finally!” Pope Francis ers.” Francis and Kirill also an important ecumeni- church given its anti-Ameri- It’s not a newfound desire
met Friday with Patriarch called for political leaders cal breakthrough, Francis can and Soviet legacy. The for Christian unity,” said
Kirill in the first ever meet- to act on the single most has also come under criti- pope helped mediate the George Demacopoulos,
ing between a pontiff and important issue of shared cism for essentially allow- declaration of detente be- the Greek-Orthodox chair-
the head of the Russian Or- concern between the ing himself to be used by a tween the U.S. and Cuba in man of Orthodox Christian
thodox Church, a historic Catholic and Orthodox Russia eager to assert itself 2014. studies at Fordham Univer-
development in the 1,000- churches today: the plight among Orthodox Christians “If this continues, Cuba will sity in New York. “It is almost
year schism that has divid- entirely about (Kirill) postur-
ed Christianity. Pope Francis, center right, and the head of the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill, center ing and trying to present
“We are brothers,” Francis left, meet at the Jose Marti aiport in Havana, Cuba, Friday, Feb. 12, 2016. This is the first-ever papal himself as the leader of Or-
said as he embraced Kirill meeting with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, a historic development in the 1,000-year thodoxy.”
in the small, wood-paneled schism within Christianity. Popes as far back as Paul
VIP room of Havana’s air- VI have met with the ecu-
port, where the three-hour (Ismael Francisco/Cubadebate/AP) menical patriarch, who is
encounter took place. the “first among equals” in
“Now things are easier,” of Christians in Iraq and Syr- and on the world stage at become the capital of uni- the 250 million-strong Ortho-
Kirill agreed as he and the ia who are being killed and a time when the country is ty,” the pope said. dox Church and the only
pope exchanged three driven from their homes by increasingly isolated from Calling the talks “very sub- patriarch who can speak
kisses on the cheek. “This is the Islamic State group. the West. stantive,” Kirill said: “The re- for global Orthodoxy. But
the will of God,” the pope “In many countries of the The declaration was signed sults make it possible to say the Russian Church is the
said. Middle East and North Af- in the uniquely ideal loca- that today the two church- biggest, wealthiest and
Francis was having the brief rica, entire families of our tion of Cuba: far removed es can actively work to- most powerful in Ortho-
talks in Cuba before head- brothers and sisters in Christ from the Catholic-Ortho- gether to protect Christians doxy, and has always kept
ing off on a five-day visit are being exterminated, dox turf battles in Europe, around the world.” its distance from Rome.
to Mexico, where the pon- The Vatican is hoping the Catholic and Orthodox
tiff will bring a message of meeting will improve rela- split in the Great Schism of
solidarity with the victims of tions with other Orthodox 1054 and have remained
drug violence, human traf- churches and spur progress estranged over a host of is-
ficking and discrimination in dialogue over theologi- sues, including the primacy
to some of that country’s cal differences that have of the pope and, more re-
most violent and poverty- divided East from West ever cently, Russian Orthodox
stricken regions. since the Great Schism of accusations that the Cath-
The meeting and signing of 1054 split Christianity. olic Church was poaching
a joint declaration of reli- But Orthodox observers converts in former Soviet
gious unity was decades in say Kirill’s willingness to fi- lands. Those tensions have
the making and cemented nally meet with a pope prevented previous popes
Francis’ reputation as a risk- has less to do with any new from meeting with the Rus-
taking statesman who val- ecumenical impulse than sian patriarch, even though
ues dialogue, bridge-build- grandstanding at a time the Vatican has long insist-
ing and rapprochement at when Russia is increasingly ed that it was merely minis-
almost any cost. under fire from the West tering to tiny Catholic com-
In the 30-point statement, over its military actions in munities.
the two leaders declared Syria and Ukraine. Kirill, a The most vexing issue in re-
themselves ready to take spiritual adviser to Russian cent time centers on the
President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian Greek Catholic
leads the most powerful of Church, the country’s sec-
the 14 independent Ortho- ond-largest, which follows
dox churches that will meet eastern church rites but an-
swers to the Holy See. The
Russian Orthodox Church
has considered western
Ukraine its traditional terri-
tory and has resented pa-
pal influence there.
Cardinal Kurt Koch, the
head of the Vatican office
that deals with Orthodox
relations, said the future
significance of the meeting
could not be overstated.
“We still don’t have con-
tact with a lot of Orthodox
patriarchs, and this meet-
ing could help develop
intra-Orthodox relations
ahead of the pan-Ortho-
dox council,” he told Vati-
can radio. q
