The diplomat had been called back to Turkey “for consultations” April 12 – the same day Pope Francis used the term “genocide” in reference to the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians during their forced evacuation by Ottoman Turks in 1915-18. From there, they will head to the presidential room of the airport, where Francis and Kirill will have a lengthy private conversation and sign a joint declaration.
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The meeting will come less than a year after Francis’ first visit to Cuba as Pope.
Those tensions have prevented previous popes from ever meeting with the Russian patriarch, even though the Vatican has long insisted that it was merely ministering to tiny Catholic communities in largely Orthodox lands.
The meeting is of the utmost importance for Christian unity and a milestone in the relations between the Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches. In addition, this historic encounter comes on the eve of the very important Pan Orthodox “Great Council”, which will be held in Crete in June, and will bring together the leaders of all the Orthodox churches.
He said he would pray with them “so that the problems of violence, corruption and everything that you know that is happening resolves itself, because the Mexico of violence, of corruption, of drug-trafficking and cartels isn’t the Mexico that our mother (the Madonna) wants”.
Metropolitan Illarion, foreign policy chief of the Russian Orthodox Church, told reporters on Friday, that the treatment of Christians by extremists in the Middle East, in northern and central Africa and in other regions requires “immediate action.”.
About two-thirds of the world’s Orthodox Christians belong to the Russian Orthodox Church, the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said. “In this tragic situation, we need to put aside internal disagreements and pool efforts to save Christianity in the regions where it is subject to most severe persecution”.
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Thomson ReutersPope Francis holds a skullcap given to him by a faithful as he arrives to lead the weekly audience in Saint Peter’s Square at the VaticanISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey returned its ambassador to the Vatican on Thursday, almost 10 months after withdrawing him in protest against Pope Francis’ description of the century-old massacres of Christian Armenians as genocide.
