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This is despite ongoing talks since 2013 between Pope Francis and the spiritual head of the Orthodox Church, Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople.

Although the two church leaders agree on many issues, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk says there are some basic differences.

"Despite the fact that our faith bases are on similar foundations and almost the same Creed, the Catholics have different teaching about the Holy Spirit."

He also says during the past thousand years of separate existence "we have accumulated many contradictions and disagreements."

Mgr Igor Kovalevsky, secretary-general of Russia's Catholic Bishops' Conference, agrees "no real progress" was being made towards solving Catholic Church problems in the country.

"I wouldn't be too optimistic," he says.

"The general situation in Russia isn't easy right now, and the Catholic Church still faces great challenges in merely building bridges.

"Whereas politicians tend to set people apart, the mission of religious leaders is to reconcile them.

"Since our own church is small and weak by itself, we should be pleased if these contacts with the Holy See have helped achieve a few small steps, if nothing more.

"But they all seem to be happening over our heads without much reference to local conditions."

Although the churches themselves may not unite, Pope Francis and Russia's Patriarch Kirill agree on some issues.

These include the need to protect endangered Christians in the Middle East.

They have also pledged to continue working for world peace.

Source

• The Tablet
• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Catholic World Report

We accept the same Nicene Creed, we recognize each other's priestly and episcopal ordinations, as well as the sacraments of baptism, confession and Eucharist.

Catholic and Orthodox teaching on morals are also quite compatible, with both being more conservative than their Protestant colleagues.

The touchy issue has always been the role of the papacy, but Pope John Paul II invited a worldwide dialogue on this topic, showing that the Vatican is open to a less intrusive role for the pope in the Eastern churches than in the West.

There were even attempts to resurrect the title of patriarch of the West for the bishop of Rome, in order to distinguish his robust role in the Western church from his role in the East.

Rome is very much interested in improved relations with the Orthodox. It is deferential to Orthodox feelings.

For example, the pope will not visit a country where a majority of the population is Orthodox without an invitation from the Orthodox church.

An invitation from the political leadership is not sufficient.

Rome has constantly reached out to the Orthodox churches, especially to the patriarchs of Constantinople and Moscow.

Relations with the patriarch of Constantinople have improved significantly since the Jerusalem meeting of Pope Paul VI with Patriarch Athenagoras in 1964 and lifting of mutual excommunications in 1965.

Popes and the ecumenical patriarch meet so frequently that it is now hardly newsworthy.

It took much longer for a pope to meet with the Russian patriarch, which finally occurred in Cuba last year.

The meeting between Francis and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow was probably as much a reward to the pope for his opposition to President Barack Obama's threat to bomb Syria as it was a show of ecumenical progress. Continue reading

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter article by Jesuit Fr. Thomas Reese, a senior analyst for NCR and author of Inside the Vatican: The Politics and Organization of the Catholic Church.
• Image: Catholic World Report

The two leaders met for 135 minutes in Cuba on February 12.

It was the first meeting of this kind for nearly 1000 years.

A joint statement was issued, in which Francis and Kirill declared: "We are not competitors but brothers, and this concept must guide all our mutual actions as well as those directed to the outside world."

"We urge Catholics and Orthodox in all countries to learn to live together in peace and love, and to be 'in harmony with one another'," they stated.

Pope Francis said he and Kirill spoke freely at the meeting.

The Pontiff said the discussions were tantamount to "a conversation of brothers", where each "spoke with frankness" about their worries and concerns.

Later, Francis also appeared to downplay some of the more strongly worded sections of the joint statement, saying: "It is not a political declaration . . . it is a pastoral declaration."

The 30-paragraph statement dealt with several controversial political issues, including: the continuing violence in Ukraine; persecution of Christians in the Middle East; issues of marriage and family life; and the practices of abortion and euthanasia.

At the beginning of their declaration, the Christian leaders wrote that they hope their meeting may be an example to the world.

Speaking of the changes facing humanity, Francis and Kirill wrote: "Human civilisation has entered into a period of epochal change."

"Our Christian conscience and our pastoral responsibility compel us not to remain passive in the face of challenges requiring a shared response," they stated.

The statement devoted six paragraphs to the persecution of Christians in the Middle East, calling on the international community "to act urgently" to prevent even more Christians from fleeing the region.

It also mentioned the violence in Iraq and Syria, and strongly denounced terrorism and the use of religion to justify violence.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• Full text: Statement by Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill
• The Guardian
• Image: Reuters

The meeting, which is expected to take two hours, will take place when the Pope is en route to Mexico, the Vatican announced.

A statement from the Vatican and the Moscow patriarchate noted that the meeting will mark an important stage in relations between the two churches.

According to a Reuters report, Metropolitan Hilarion of the Russian Orthodox Church said the meeting is taking place because of the need for a joint response to the persecution of Christians in the Middle East.

Metropolitan Hilarion said that long-standing differences between the two churches remain, most notably a row over the status of the Uniate Church, in Ukraine.

But he said these differences were being put aside so that Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis could come together on the issue of persecution of Christians.

"The situation shaping up today in the Middle East, in North and Central Africa, and in some other regions where extremists are carrying out a genuine genocide of the Christian population, demands urgent measures and an even closer cooperation between the Christian churches," Hilarion said.

"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."

Hilarion said the first-ever meeting between the heads of the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches would not take place in Europe because Patriarch Kirill had objected to such a venue from the very beginning.

"Because it is namely Europe with which this tragic history of divisions and conflicts among Christians is linked," Hilarion said.

The meeting between the Pope and Patriarch Kirill will come only months before the expected opening in June of the first synod meeting of the various Orthodox churches in more than a thousand years.

This synod will be in Crete.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• Reuters
• Image: Asia News

The council could lead to closer ties to the Roman Catholic Church.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I fears that some churches are too isolated from each other and the outer world.

Speaking to a summit in Istanbul, he said the council must find a way to help Orthodox churches resolve their differences.

It must also help them work more as one church rather than many, he said.

"Unless the Orthodox Church places its own house in order, it would be unable to address the world with authority and validity," he said.

He mentioned "relations with non-Orthodox Christians" as a topic to be debated before the council, but gave no specifics.

Patriarch Bartholomew will meet Pope Francis in Jerusalem in May.

The council, officially called the Holy and Great Synod, will take place in Istanbul's Hagia Irene.

This is a former Byzantine church in a courtyard of Topkapi Palace, the home of the Ottoman sultans.

One of the main questions facing the 2016 council will be how to balance relations among the Orthodox Churches.

The Russian church, after seven decades of subjugation under communism, has re-emerged as an influential voice in world Christianity.

A communique from the patriarchs stressed that all decisions at the council would be taken by consensus.

This is a position the Russians strongly defended in preparations for the meeting.

The patriarchs also called for "peaceful negotiations and prayerful reconciliation in the ongoing crisis in Ukraine".

They adenounced what they said were "threats of violent occupation of sacred monasteries and churches" there.

On the Middle East, the patriarchs denounced "the lack of peace and stability, which is prompting Christians to abandon the land where our Lord Jesus Christ was born".

Sources:

• The Tablet
• Huffington Post
• Image: archons.org

But this is not the first time the region has been so critical to international affairs.

Many educated people have at least heard of the great struggle known as the Crimean War (1853-56), although its causes and events remain mysterious to most non-specialists.

If the conflict is remembered today, it resonates through the heroic charitable efforts of Florence Nightingale and the foundation of modern nursing.

Actually, that earlier war deserves to be far better known as a pivotal moment in European religious affairs.

Without knowing that religious element, moreover—without a sense of its Christian background—we will miss major themes in modern global affairs, in the Middle East and beyond. Continue reading.

Source: Christianity Today

Image: Officers of the 42nd Highlanders regiment, known as the 'Black Watch', during the Crimean War. Roger Fenton/Getty Image

Between the years 1991 and 2008, Russian adults identifying at Orthodox Christian rose from 31% to 72%, and the share of Russia's population not identifying with any religion dropped from 61% - 18%, the February 2014 international survey shows.

However the increase in the number of people identifying as Christians has not corresponded with an increase of numbers attending church.

Only one in ten Russians said they attended religious services at least once a month.

For centuries, Orthodox Christianity was the dominant religion in Russia, however this began to change following the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution and the imposition of state-sponsored atheism as part of communist ideology.

During the Soviet period, many priests were imprisoned, many churches were converted to other uses or fell into disrepair and people who publicly professed religious beliefs were denied prestigious jobs and admission to universities.

"It is difficult to disentangle the extent to which the upsurge in Orthodox affiliation found in the surveys represents and expression of long-held faith or a genuinely new wave of religious affiliation," reports the PewResearch study.

The data however suggests the change is not solely an immediate aftereffect of the collapse of the Soviet system.

Other findings concluded:

• Older Russians (70+) were more affiliated than older (16 - 29)
• Younger Russians (16 - 29) were more likely to belong to other religions (70+)
• Religious affiliation did not differ markedly by education level
• Russian were more likely to identify as Orthodox Christians
• Russian women believed in God than did Russian men
• Twice as many Russian men (24%) said they had no religious affiliation.

Source

• PewResearch

"This powerful energy today strives to finally break with Christianity, which controlled its totalitarian impulses during 17 centuries," said Metropolitan Hilarion in an article quoted by a Russian news agency.

"Eventually, it unconsciously strives to set up an absolute dictatorship that demands total control over each member of society."

Continue reading

Patriarch Kirill I will sign the declaration with Archbishop Józef Michalik of Przemysl, president of the Catholic bishops' conference, at Warsaw's Royal Castle on August 17.

"The purpose of this document is to resolve painful pages of Polish and Russian history," explained Father Jozef Kloch, spokesman for the Polish bishops.

"This event must not be treated in political terms but as an indication of a path, a symbol and a sign of obedience to the will of Christ, an important step on the path of forgiveness," added Archbishop Michalik.

"We are deeply convinced that relations between the peoples of Russia and Poland, which have often been marred by hatred, wars and enmity, can and must be improved," said the Russian Orthodox Church's head of external relations, Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyez.

The first important step towards Russo-Polish reconciliation was the visit of a group of monks from a Russian Orthodox monastery near Ostashkov to Jasna Gora, the Catholic shrine of the Black Madonna of Czestochowa, in 2009.

Archbishop Stanislaw Nowak of Czestochowa and Father Izydor Matuszewski, prior general of the Pauline Fathers and custodian of the shrine, gave a copy of the icon of the Black Madonna to the Russian Orthodox delegation.

"This holy icon of the Black Madonna is a sign of our spiritual closeness, and also a symbol of Europe's two lungs, Eastern and Western, as the Servant of God John Paul II taught," said Archbishop Nowak at the time.

The Orthodox monks kept the copy of the image of the Madonna in the Monastery of Saint Nil at Stolobienskoje, close to a Second World War Soviet camp where more than 6000 Polish soldiers were killed.

Sources:

Interfax

Zenit

Image: RIA Novosti

Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate's Department for External Church Relations, made the remarks at a meeting in Moscow with Johannes von Heereman, executive president of the Aid to the Church in Need International on Pentecost Sunday (27 May).

Metropolitan Hilarion said that the Churches must not wait for reunion before they take action as "Eucharistic union will not come about within a few years".

Both Mr Heereman and the metropolitan agreed that it was necessary to "pursue new approaches and cast off the burdens of the past". Continue reading