Pope, Head Of The Russian Orthodox Church Meet For The First Time

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and Pope Francis meet at Jose Marti International Airport in Havana Feb. 12.

It’s a historic and controversial meeting-the first time a Russian patriarch and pope have met in more than 1,000 years.

After his meeting Kirill, Francis will head to Mexico City where Saturday he will meet with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto before holding mass at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe – the most visited Catholic site in the world. The declaration covered Christian beliefs and current conflicts as it called for peace in Iraq, Syria and Ukraine.

Francis will then visit Mexico, returning to Rome on February 18. “Now things are easier”, Kirill said.

Their meeting carried political overtones, coming at a time of Russian disagreements with the West over Syria and Ukraine.

The meeting in Cuba’s capital of Havana will be the first ever meeting between a pope and a head of the Russian Church, the largest Orthodox Church in the world.

“I was born in Mexico and so it always draws you back”, Houstonian Patricia Lozano said.

The plan is for believers to light up the road Francis’ popemobile will travel with their mobile phones or hand-held torches, creating what local organiser Roberto Delgado described as a “wall of light and prayer”.

The majority of those Christians who are feeling that pressure are either Roman Catholic or Orthodox, although certainly others as well.

The pope’s first stop this time again is Havana, where he’s to meet with Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill in the aims of easing a historic rift in Christianity.

One other source of concern about the Pope-Patriarch meeting was the skepticism of some Orthodox leaders, who believed that the Moscow patriarchate was seeking to burnish its credentials as the leading voice of the Orthodox world, in anticipation of the unprecedented worldwide council of Orthodox patriarchs that has been scheduled for June.

The meeting on neutral ground – hosted by the communist, atheist Cuban leadership of Raul Castro – was decades in the planning, with the final obstacles swept away by the pope’s determination and global politics.

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.

More recently, tensions have grown over the growth of the Catholic Church in Eastern Europe.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has supported the Russian Orthodox Church.

The white-bearded Orthodox leader was also greeted by the 84-year-old Castro after arriving on Thursday. They talked for about three hours, exchanged gifts and signed a joint declaration.

Kirill, who is on a tour of Cuba and South America, looks to project Russian influence in the region, including construction of a major Orthodox church in Havana despite relatively few followers.

The meeting has received heavy coverage on Russia’s state-run television networks, a reliable mirror of what authorities want to show their citizens.

While a papal trip to Russian Federation is still a long-sought dream, Caprio ruled it out for the foreseeable future.