Pope, head of Russian Orthodox Church to meet

The two leaders will hold several hours of private talks at the Havana airport, according to the Vatican, and deliver public remarks and sign a joint statement.

The pope and the head of the largest Orthodox Church would meet next week in Cuba, the churches said in a joint statement on Friday.

Much of the friction has seemingly been the product of a territorial dispute, as Russian Orthodox leaders have accused the Roman Catholic Church of proselytizing in Russia and Ukraine, effectively encroaching on Orthodox turf.

Relations between the two churches were framed by the bitter legacy of the Great Schism of 1054 and the recriminations, including mutual excommunications and the violence associated with the Crusades, that followed.

The Russian Orthodox Church has considered western Ukraine its conventional land, resenting papal sway there.

Pope Francis waves to the faithful as he arrives in St. Peter’s Square for his Jubilee audience on January 30, 2016 in Vatican City, Vatican.

But no pope has ever met with a Russian patriarch.

Budapest Archbishop Erdo said in a letter to Francis and Kyrill that “this historic meeting, which happily sets the seal on decades of dialogue between the Holy See and the Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church, also comforts the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences (CCEE) in its choice of investing in this dialogue”.

The meeting was announced jointly at the Vatican and in Moscow, the seat of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The meeting was years in the works and marks a major development in the Vatican’s long effort to bridge the divisions in Christianity.

The meeting will take place in Cuba where Patriarch Kirill will be making an official visit.

Alberto Melloni, a Vatican historian, also noted that the Cuba meeting has meaningful geopolitical implications, because it comes at a moment when the United States and Europe are working to diplomatically isolate Russian Federation.

Metropolitan Illarion, the foreign policy leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, told reporters that there were differences involving both churches, particularly on western Ukraine. “They fear a conservative backlash in Rome after Francis”, he said. The historic meeting is an attempt to heal the 1,000-year-old rift in Christianity.

The Orthodox Church has close relations with the Kremlin and Kirill and Putin are said to have a close relationship. It was arranged with the help of Cuban President Raul Castro, who hosted the pope in Cuba a year ago.

From the beginning, Lombardi said, such a summit had to be in a neutral place. Although there have been reports of warming relations during Francis’ papacy, the Vatican’s announcement Friday was widely unexpected.

“We’ll never get to that day, I assure you”, Francis said then.

The meeting has been on the cards for some time with Francis having said in 2014 that he had told Kirill to just “call me and I’ll come”.

“Like John Paul II, Francis is not afraid to make history”, Dr. Bennitto said.