HAVANA, CUBA – His Beatitude Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia met with Pope Francis of Rome on February 12, in a lounge at Havana’s Jose Marti International Airport in Cuba.
The two prelates embraced and exchange the kiss of love and peace three times. Pope Francis said to Patriarch Kirill “we are brothers.”
It was the first between a pope and a Russian Orthodox patriarch in some 500 years. That the media widely reported it as the first meeting in 1000 years, since the occurrence of the East-West Schism is historically out of context as there was no Moscow Patriarchate at the time; Moscow was a small diocese, part of the Kiev Metropolis which, in turn, was part of the Church of Constantinople. The Ecumenical Patriarchate granted Moscow autocephaly and raised it to patriarchate status 427 years ago.
In 1438, the head Kiev Metropolis Isidoros, while a member of the entourage of the Ecumenical Patriarch Joseph II the met Pope Eugene II at the Synod of Florencia-Ferrara. That Synod was rejected by consciences of the Orthodox Church.
At the end of the February 12 meeting between Kirill and Francis, the two signed a joint declaration in which they express their hope that the meeting “may contribute to the reestablishment of [the] unity willed by God, for which Christ prayed.”
“May our meeting inspire Christians throughout the world to pray to the Lord with renewed fervor for the full unity of all His disciples. In a world that yearns not only for our words but also for tangible gestures, may this meeting be a sign of hope for all people of goodwill!” the declaration reads.
Kirill was overheard telling the pope, “Things are easier now.”
“It is clearer that this is God’s will,” Pope Francis told him.
The meeting took months of negotiations and more than two decades to be arranged.
Cuban President Raul Castro hosted. Kirill was paying a pastoral visit to the Russian Orthodox communities in Cuba while Francis was on his way on a pastoral visit to Mexico and the stop in Havana was announced just a week prior to the meeting.
In the common declaration that Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill signed, they emphasized the things and concerns the two Churches have in common.
Commenting about the situation in the Middle East and North Africa, they said that “whole families, villages and cities of our brothers and sisters in Christ are being completely exterminated.” They called on the international community “to act urgently in order to prevent the further expulsion” of Christians, to end violence and terrorism, and to ensure that large amounts of humanitarian aid reach the victims of violence.
They also said that “in raising our voice in defense of persecuted Christians, we wish to express our compassion for the suffering experienced by the faithful of other religious traditions who have also become victims of civil war, chaos and terrorist violence.
“Attempts to justify criminal acts with religious slogans are altogether unacceptable. No crime may be committed in God’s name.”
They called those who have died “martyrs of our times” and said they helped unite various Churches “by their shared suffering.”
They spoke of the need to be vigilant against European integration that is “devoid of respect for religious identities.” They also spoke of extreme poverty, the “millions of migrants and refugees knocking on the doors of wealthy nations,” and consumerism.
They also touched upon issues of abortion, euthanasia, new reproductive technologies, and threats against the churches’ view of marriage.
Patriarch Kirill said they had a two-hour, “open discussion with full awareness of the responsibility we have for our people, for the future of Christianity, and for the future of human civilization itself. It was a conversation filled with content that gave us the opportunity to understand and hear the position of the other. And the results of the conversation allow me to assure that currently both churches can cooperate together to defend Christians around the world; with full responsibility to work together so that there may be no war; so that human life can be respected in the entire world; so that the foundations of human, family and social morality may be strengthened through the participation of the church in the life of human modern society.”
Pope Francis said: “We spoke as brothers, we share the same baptism, we are bishops, we spoke about our churches. We agreed that unity is done walking (together). We spoke clearly without mincing words. I confess that I felt the consolation of the Spirit in this dialogue. I am grateful for the humility of His Holiness, his fraternal humility and his good wishes for unity. We left with a series of initiatives that I believe are viable and can be done.”