Can we set aside our differences?: Catholics and Russian Orthodox Patriarch unite for the first time in 1,000 years

Pope Francis will visit Cuba to heal 1,000-year-old rift.

The Vatican recently announced the historic meeting between Pope Francis and the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The meeting is set for Friday and will be the first time the heads of the Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches will ever meet.

Since 1054, the Russian Orthodox Church has feared the Catholic model of ecumenism meant complete submission to papal authority, leaving the churches firmly separated for a thousand years.

Though the Catholic Church has reached out to the Russian Orthodox Church on several occasions, several of the Russian clergy and laity claimed a meeting would be impossible until several disputes could be resolved.

According to cruxnow, their list of disputes include:

• The so-called "Uniate Churches," meaning the Eastern churches in communion with Rome, which some Orthodox see as a Trojan horse originally created to siphon people away from Orthodoxy.
• The Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine in particular, which some Russian Orthodox see not only as an illegitimate Catholic toehold on Moscow's "canonical territory," but also resent for its generally pro-Western and anti-Russian political line.
• Alleged Catholic proselytism in Russia and areas within Russia's sphere of influence, despite the fact that a study in 2002 found there were just 800 conversions in the entire decade of the 1990's. Meanwhile, Evangelical and Pentecostal Christianity exploded in Russia, so much so that a 2012 book referred to it as a "post-Soviet gold rush."

Part of what led the Russian Orthodox Church to accept a meeting with Pope Francis is Patriarch Kirill's experience as the chair of the Church's Department for External Church Relations. As the chair, Kirill was open to building a relationship with other branches of Christianity, including the Roman Catholic Church.

In 2014, Pope Francis told Patriarch Kirill, "I'll go wherever you want. You call me and I'll go."
Apparently, Patriarch Kirill has called.

According to a joint statement released by the Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church: "The Holy See and the Patriarchate of Moscow are pleased to announce that, by the grace of God, His Holiness Pope Francis and His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia will meet on February 12.

"Their meeting will take place in Cuba, where the Pope will make a stop on his way to Mexico, and where the Patriarch will be on an official visit. It will include a personal conversation at Havana's José Martí International Airport, and will conclude with the signing of a joint declaration."

The statement also included the "hope that [the meeting] will also be a sign of hope for all people of good will. They [Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches] invite all Christians to pray fervently for God to bless this meeting, that it may bear good fruits."

The meet is also steeped in a joint concern for Christian persecution in the East.

Senior Orthodox cleric Metropolitan Hilarion admitted, "We need to put aside internal disagreements at this tragic time and join efforts to save Christians in the regions where they are subject to the most atrocious persecution."

Pope Francis agreed, saying an "ecumenism of blood unites us."

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