MOSCOW (AP) — When Patriarch Kirill meets Pope Francis this week, the historic event will allow the head of the Russian Orthodox Church to assert Russia’s leading role in the Eastern Christian world.
Francis and Kirill — two clerics who could not be more different in style — took everyone by surprise when both churches announced last Friday that they would meet at the Havana airport in Cuba on Friday in a historic step to heal the 1,000-year schism that split Christianity.
By agreeing to the meeting with the head of the Catholic Church, the Russian Church swept under the rug the …read more
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
