The 30-point declaration contains a joint call by the two church primates for an end to the persecution of Christians in the Middle East and to wars in the region, expressing their hope that the meeting might contribute to the re-establishment of Christian unity between the two churches. The Great Schism of 1054 split Christianity between Greek East russia meet cuba Latin West. According to the ROC, it began bilateral dialogue with the Catholic Church in 1967 and the ROC began theological dialogue with the Catholic Church in 1979.
Attempts had previously been made to arrange a meeting between a pope and a Russian patriarch, but these attempts had failed. Two years of secretive planning and months of detailed negotiation were necessary to arrange the meeting between Francis and Kirill. Francis was willing to meet Kirill, having said in November 2014: “I’ll go wherever you want. You call me and I’ll go. The meeting took place on 12 February 2016 in a VIP room at José Martí International Airport near Havana, Cuba. Francis arrived at 2 pm local time, and the two leaders embraced and kissed.
A 2-hour private meeting was followed by the signing of their joint declaration, which had been prepared in advance. At the end of the meeting, there was an exchange of gifts. The joint declaration was published by the Vatican in Italian, Russian, English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic. The Russian Orthodox Church published it in Russian, English, Italian, French, Spanish and Ukrainian. The first section of the declaration gives thanks for this meeting “the first in history” and refers to the leaders as “brothers in the Christian faith”. Sections 2 and 3 refers to their meeting place of Cuba as “the crossroads of North and South, East and West”, and expressed joy at the growth of Christianity in Latin America. 21 refer to “the challenges of the contemporary world”.
The closing sections call on Catholics and Orthodox to “work together fraternally in proclaiming the Good News of salvation” and to “give shared witness to the Spirit of truth in these difficult times”. The declaration concludes with a prayer to Mary, who is invoked by the names of the “Blessed Virgin Mary” as well as “Holy Mother of God”. Kirill has faced criticism over his policies that have brought the Russian Orthodox Church closer to the Russian state. In the 2012 Russian presidential election he supported Vladimir Putin, likening Putin’s presidency to “a miracle from God”. Taft credits the new approach by Francis for creating the conditions needed for the meeting, opining that “Russia is coming to understand that the Catholic Church sees them as a sister church, not as someone who separated from the only real Church. According to The Economist, the meeting was a diplomatic victory for Russia’s government: “The meeting with his Russian counterpart drew Francis deep into geopolitics, and led him to condone Russia’s foreign policy and critique the West’s in ways that infuriated some of the Catholic church’s supporters”. Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, says he was disappointed and his church members felt “betrayed by the Vatican” over the declaration’s stance regarding Ukraine.
According to ROC official documents, the most important goal of the Orthodox Church in relations with non-Orthodox confessions is the restoration of the God-commanded Christian unity. Indifference to this task or its rejection is a sin against Jesus’ command of unity. Kirill meeting and ROC preparations for the 2016 Pan-Orthodox Council. Kirill “has no obvious enemies in the episcopate” but some “marginal figures” in the clergy are enemies. Some ROC priests have criticized Kirill and called his acts heretical.
The Holy Synod of the Moldovan Orthodox Church published an appeal addressed to those who omit Kirill from their public prayers. ROC members accepted the meeting and the results positively. Kirill meeting by some Orthodox and answered most questions about what happened. Bulekov commented that in most cases the same people made critical remarks and “if not for this meeting, there would be other reasons for such statements. Alfeyev pointed out that this command had been broken and this condition is wrong and sinful. The purpose of the dialogue is reflected in the joint statement and is not intended to overcome division and differences, according to Alfayev. The presence of Western saints in the Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar, Viktorin points out, is evidence of a millennium of common doctrine.
It would be a great mistake,” Mercurius said, “to stop conversing with each other and to throw stones at one another. The 18th-century copy of the icon was smuggled out the Soviet Union under unclear circumstances. It was purchased by the Blue Army of Our Lady of Fátima and enshrined in Fátima, Portugal, in the 1970s. It was donated to the Vatican in 1993. For more on the background and the earlier meetings between Popes and Orthodox leaders, see ‘Pope Francis, Patriarch Kirill and the God of Surprises’ by US prelate and Catholic bishop Mitchell T. Maciej Gajek writes that although the meeting of Francis with Kirill was important, it was a political use of Kirill as a messenger conveying Putin’s policy and not about faith. Gajek criticises the media, on newsweek.
According to a 2015 article on jamestown. Russian Orthodox Church “would cease to be the largest Orthodox denomination in the world” if it were “to lose all of its parishes and bishoprics in Ukraine. For more on issues relating to the planned Pan-Orthodox Council, see ‘At Last, A Council for the Ages? John Chryssavgis, US theologian and advisor to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. Orthodox faith, and do not depart from the canonical tradition of the Church. Wil van den Bercken wrote that there are semiofficial and unofficial anti-ecumenism pamphlets “sold inside church buildings” which are not official ROC teaching but are “sometimes published ‘with the blessing’ of a local bishop.
Bercken thinks “mental barriers” against ecumenism in Russia are more “ideological and psychological” than ecclesiological or theological. There is a decades long factional “struggle between openness and reform on one hand and isolation and ultra-conservatism on the other,” according to Mikhail Gorelik in 1994. The religious ultraconservatives “share a common ideology” of Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality with fascist and communist political ultraconservatives. Unity call as Pope Francis holds historic talks with Russian Orthodox Patriarch”. Meeting of His Holiness Pope Francis with His Holiness Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia”.
