The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, is to meet his Roman Catholic counterpart, Pope Francis, during a historic visit to Latin America. The patriarch will be on an official trip to Cuba and the pope will make the brief stop en route to Mexico, the churches said in a joint statement. The patriarch will visit Paraguay, Chile, and Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo in Brazil.
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“It is necessary to put aside internal disagreements and unite efforts for saving Christianity in the regions where it is subjected to the most severe persecution”, the statement read. Those patriarchs play a largely symbolic role, while the rich Russian church wields real influence because it counts some 165 million of the world’s 250 million Orthodox Christians.
The Roman Catholic Church, which has 1.2 billion followers compared to the Russian Orthodox Church’s 165 million (Eastern Orthodox churches combined claim a membership of around 300 million), was thrilled with the patriarch’s acceptance.
“They fear a conservative backlash in Rome after Francis”, he said.
Kyrill wanted to meet Francis outside Europe because “Europe is linked to the hard story of the divisions and conflicts between Christians”, said Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev, head of the external relations department of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The Moscow patriarchate has repeatedly complained about “proselytism” by Catholics in Russian Federation, and about the activities of the Byzantine-rite Ukrainian Catholic Church.
“The encounter has been under preparation for a long time – it wasn’t improvised”, Lombardi said.
“They invite all Christians to pray fervently for God to bless this meeting, that it may bear good fruits”, the statement added.
The meeting will come as representatives of Orthodox Churches from around the world are preparing for a pan-Orthodox Council meeting in Crete in June. Yet the mass killing, torture, and rape of Christians – both Catholic and Orthodox – in countries such as Syria and Libya has led the two churches to overcome their differences.
The Holy See and Russia were able to formally upgrade their relations from “official” to “diplomatic” in December 2009 following a gradual thawing of relations between the Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches.
John Paul II had spoken of the need to reconcile the “two lungs” of Christianity, but the Moscow Patriarchate has resented the pontificate of the Polish Pope, who supported the Ukrainian Greek Catholics, a Catholic Eastern Churches.
Metropolitan Illarion, the foreign policy leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, told reporters that there were differences involving both churches, particularly on western Ukraine. Since then, the churches have viewed each other with deep suspicion and as heretical, with members of the Orthodox faith disputing the pope’s status as Christianity’s supreme leader on earth.
On several occasions since becoming the Vatican’s chief pontiff, Pope Francis has advocated for religious tolerance.
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The announcement indicated that the Pope and the Patriarch will sign a joint declaration after their conversation.
