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Pope Arrives in Cuba for Historic Meeting with Russian Orthodox Leader Pope Holds Historic Meeting With Russian Orthodox Leader in Cuba
(about 1 hour later)
HAVANA — Pope Francis arrived in Cuba on Friday for a meeting with the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, the first ever between a pope and the Russian patriarch since the split between the Western and Eastern branches of Christianity nearly 1,000 years ago. HAVANA — Pope Francis on Friday became the first pontiff to ever meet a patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, as the two Christian leaders set aside centuries of division in a historic encounter that was held in an unlikely setting: a room at the Havana airport.
Francis was scheduled to confer for two hours with Patriarch Kirill at José Martí International Airport here before leaving on a five-day visit to Mexico. Having announced the meeting only a week ago, Francis landed in Havana about 2 p.m., for a stopover expected to last a few hours, before he continued to Mexico City for his six-day visit to Mexico. Awaiting him in Havana was Patriarch Kirill, who was making an official visit to Cuba at the invitation of President Raúl Castro.
The meeting, which the Vatican publicly disclosed less than a week ago, is the result of what Vatican officials have described as delicate and sustained diplomacy, some of it begun decades ago under Pope John Paul II. As he approached the Russian patriarch amid the clicking of news cameras, Francis was overheard to say, “Brother.” A moment later, he added, “Finally.”
The location also reflects Francis’ close ties to Cuba, which Vatican officials credited with helping to organize the meeting. The two men embraced, kissing each other twice on the cheeks and clasping hands before taking seats. “Now things are easier,” Patriarch Kirill said. Francis responded, “It is clear now that this is the will of God.”
The Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said when the news was announced last Saturday that discussions for such a meeting had been underway for at least two years. The meeting was richly symbolic: Francis, leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, stood with Patriarch Kirill, leader of the largest church in the Eastern Orthodox world, with an estimated 150 million followers. But it was also about geopolitics, rivalries among Orthodox leaders and, analysts say, the maneuverings of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia — who is closely aligned with the conservative Russian church.
The two leaders were scheduled to release a joint declaration before Francis continued on to Mexico City later Friday. For Francis, the meeting was an ecumenical and diplomatic coup that eluded his predecessors but that also opened him to criticism that his embrace of the Russian patriarch would indirectly give a boost to Mr. Putin as he wages a war in Syria and continues to meddle in Ukraine.
In Moscow, the Russian news media made little effort to hide the government’s role in enabling the historic encounter. In an editorial this week, Vedomosti, a business newspaper, said, “The meeting would not be possible if the interests of the Russian Orthodox Church did not coincide with those of the Kremlin.”
The Cuban setting was the result of months of negotiations, abetted by Mr. Castro. It met the demands of the Russian side for a “neutral” meeting place while dovetailing with Francis’ trip to Mexico.
The two religious leaders met with aides and translators in a private room at José Martí International Airport and were expected to release a joint declaration before Francis left for Mexico City.
For decades, the Vatican has sought a meeting with the Russian patriarch as popes tried to heal the rifts between the eastern and western branches of Christianity. Analysts say Francis, who has made deepening ecumenical ties a centerpiece of his papacy, was able to achieve a meeting because of a complex confluence of factors.
Analysts note that Mr. Putin could have blocked the meeting but apparently concluded that it could burnish his global standing and undermine Western efforts to isolate Russia with sanctions after the Ukraine conflict. Mr. Putin has sought to portray Russia as a defender of beleaguered Christians in the Middle East, including in Syria as he props up the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
Patriarch Kirill is trying to burnish his image at home after corruption scandals swirling around church property. He also is preparing for a major council of Orthodox leaders in June on the Greek island of Crete. The council is being organized by his rival, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, the spiritual leader of Orthodox Christianity. Meeting Francis only enhances the Russian patriarch’s stature.
“He sees this as projecting himself as a global Orthodox leader,” said Aristotle Papanikolaou, co-founder of the Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University. “It is also a way of projecting Russia globally.”
The roots of the East-West split in Christianity can be traced to the Schism of 1054. The Eastern churches led by the patriarch of Constantinople separated from the Western church led by Pope Leo IX, as each leader angrily excommunicated the other side. Russian Christians fell under the orbit of Constantinople.
But when Muslim invaders of the Ottoman Empire sacked Constantinople in the 15th century, the Eastern churches were thrown into disarray. The Russian Orthodox Church declared itself an independent entity and named its own patriarch. More than five centuries would pass before Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras of Constantinople met in 1964 and later lifted the mutual excommunications.
But the Russian church maintained its distance from Rome. Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI tried and failed to achieve a breakthrough. One obstacle was the Soviet Union, which tightly restricted the Russian church. But even the fall of the Soviet Union did not alter the equation, as the Russian church complained about Catholic proselytizing on its historical turf.
Today, tensions still exist over Ukraine, where the Russians are suspicious of the Vatican’s influence over Greek Orthodox congregations, who are Catholic but who celebrate Mass according to Eastern traditions and allow their priests to marry.
The Vedomosti editorial noted that Patriarch Kirill was under pressure to support the continued existence of the branch of Orthodoxy in Ukraine that remains loyal to Moscow.