Pope Francis on Friday became the first pontiff to ever meet a patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, as the two Christian leaders set aside centuries of division in a historic encounter that was held in an unlikely setting: a room at the Havana airport.
Having announced the meeting only a week ago, Francis landed in Havana about 2 p.m. for a stopover that lasted a few hours, before he continued to Mexico City for his six-day visit to Mexico. Awaiting him in Havana was Patriarch Kirill, who was making an official visit to Cuba at the invitation of President Raúl Castro.
As he approached the Russian patriarch amid the clicking of news cameras, Francis was overheard to say, “Brother.” A moment later, he added, “Finally.”
The two men embraced, kissing each other twice on the cheeks and clasping hands before taking seats. “Now things are easier,” Kirill said. Francis responded, “It is clear now that this is the will of God.”
The meeting was richly symbolic: Francis, 79, leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, stood with Kirill, 69, leader of the largest church in the Eastern Orthodox world, with an estimated 150 million followers. But it was also about geopolitics, rivalries among Orthodox leaders and, analysts say, the maneuverings of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia — who is closely aligned with the conservative Russian church.
For Francis, the meeting was an ecumenical and diplomatic coup that eluded his predecessors but that also opened him to criticism that his embrace of the Russian patriarch would indirectly give a boost to Mr. Putin as he wages a war in Syria and continues to meddle in Ukraine.
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The Cuban setting was the result of months of negotiations, abetted by Mr. Castro. It met the demands of the Russian side for a “neutral” meeting place while dovetailing with Francis’ trip to Mexico.
The two religious leaders met with aides and translators in a private room at José Martí International Airport.
In a joint declaration released afterward, they called for an end to the conflicts raging in the Middle East and for an end to the persecution of Christians in the region, “the land in which our faith was first disseminated and in which they have lived since the time of the Apostles, together with other religious communities.”
Addressing the schism between their religions, the two also declared, “It is our hope that our meeting may contribute to the re-establishment of this unity willed by God.”
For decades, the Vatican has sought a meeting with the Russian patriarch as popes tried to heal the rifts between the Eastern and Western branches of Christianity. Analysts say Francis, who has made deepening ecumenical ties a centerpiece of his papacy, was able to achieve a meeting because of a complex confluence of factors.
Analysts note that Mr. Putin could have blocked the meeting but apparently concluded that it could burnish his global standing and undermine Western efforts to isolate Russia with sanctions over the Ukraine conflict. Mr. Putin has sought to portray Russia as a defender of beleaguered Christians in the Middle East, including in Syria as he props up the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
Kirill is trying to burnish his image at home after corruption scandals swirling around church property. He also is preparing for a major council of Orthodox leaders in June on the Greek island of Crete. The council is being organized by his rival, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, the spiritual leader of Orthodox Christianity. Meeting Francis only enhances the Russian patriarch’s stature.
“He sees this as projecting himself as a global Orthodox leader,” said Aristotle Papanikolaou, co-founder of the Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University. “It is also a way of projecting Russia globally.”
The roots of the East-West split in Christianity can be traced to the Schism of 1054. The Eastern churches led by the patriarch of Constantinople separated from the Western church led by Pope Leo IX, as each leader angrily excommunicated the other side. Russian Christians fell under the orbit of Constantinople.
But when Muslim invaders of the Ottoman Empire sacked Constantinople in the 15th century, the Eastern churches were thrown into disarray. The Russian Orthodox Church declared itself an independent entity and named its own patriarch. More than five centuries would pass before Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras of Constantinople met in 1964 and later lifted the mutual excommunications.
But the Russian church maintained its distance from Rome. Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI tried and failed to achieve a breakthrough. One obstacle was the Soviet Union, which tightly restricted the Russian church. But even the fall of the Soviet Union did not alter the equation, as the Russian church complained about Catholic proselytizing on its historical turf.
Today, tensions still exist over Ukraine, where the Russians are suspicious of the Vatican’s influence over Greek Orthodox congregations, who are Catholic but who celebrate Mass according to Eastern traditions and allow their priests to marry.
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