Pope Francis and Patriarch Kyrill of the Moscow Patriarchate will meet in Cuba on February 12. This meeting is significant for many reasons, as the Roman See has desired a meeting with the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church for many decades now. It is too early to speculate on the matters to be discussed by the Pope and Patriarch, but the timing may provide some insight. First, the two Churches have often shared common ground on moral issues, especially in defining, strengthening, and defending traditional teachings on marriage. Second, both Churches are deeply concerned about the plight of Christians in the Middle East, especially Syria, Palestine, and Iraq. The news release indicates that the Pope and Patriarch will sign a joint declaration; one can surmise that this declaration will call for an end to violence and war, and appeal to all Christians to assist refugees.
Will the Pope and Patriarch discuss matters of Christian responsibility concerning the war in Eastern Ukraine? One of the primary stumbling blocks to dialogue between the Vatican and Moscow Patriarchate has been Moscow’s objection to the activity of the Ukrainian Greco-Catholic Church (UGCC). Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfayev), the chairman of Moscow’s Department for External Relations, reiterated Moscow’s position on the UGCC at a press conference held on February 5, 2016:
The fact that the Uniates devastated three dioceses of the Moscow Patriarchate in western Ukraine in the 1980s and 1990s, that they moved the headquarters of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church from Lvov to Kiev, that the UGCC’s mission extended to the traditionally Orthodox lands in eastern and southern Ukraine, that they supported the schismatics – all these factors only aggravated the problem. The situation aggravated further as a result of the recent events in Ukraine, in which the UGCC representatives took a direct part, coming out with anti-Russian and russophobic slogans.
Furthermore, this meeting between the Pope and Patriarch takes place after the synaxis of Orthodox primates in Geneva, and prior to the forthcoming Great and Holy Council to be held in Crete, June 19-27, 2016. The matter of divisions within Ukrainian Orthodoxy was raised by Patriarch Kyrill at the synaxis, which elicited a response from Archdeacon John Chryssavgis of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Pope Francis’s depiction of the war in Eastern Ukraine as “fratricidal” raised questions among many Ukrainians, who do not regard the conflict as a civil war.
It seems that much is at stake for this historic meeting of Pope Francis and Patriarch Kyrill. Perhaps we can hope that their joint declaration might result in ecumenical Christian services that provides permanent homes for refugees of the Middle East and the millions of internally displaced persons in Ukraine.
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