WHERE ROME MEETS MOSCOW
Today, Pope Francis will meet Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, in Havana, Cuba. It is a meeting unprecedented in history which has been under consideration for more than 20 years. In the long history of Christianity it is a significant moment.
In 1054, the two principal sees in Christianity split with each other, Rome in the west and Constantinople in the east. The breach was then not thought a permanent thing, but it has lasted nearly a thousand years, with Catholicism ( Rome) and Orthodoxy ( Constantinople) still divided into the largest Christian Churches. In 1964, 900 years after the split, the Pope of Rome, Paul VI, and the Patriarch of Constantinople, Athenagoras, decided to meet for the first time in Jerusalem.
But by 1964 the Orthodox patriarchate of Constantinople had become a shadow of its former self. Styling itself the “Second Rome” it had withered under more than four centuries of Ottoman rule after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, and was being slowly asphyxiated by secularist Turkey in the 20th century. Today the number of Orthodox souls in Istanbul would be smaller than a typical Catholic parish in suburban Toronto.
The centre of gravity of the Orthodox faithful is the Russian Orthodox Church, with two-thirds of Orthodoxy’s 200-million adherents, which is why Moscow calls itself the “Third Rome.” Rome and Constantinople now routinely meet, but the meeting of Rome and Moscow has been keenly desired by the former for decades, and resisted just as keenly by the latter — until now.
The Moscow patriarchate was established in the immediate aftermath of the fall of Constantinople in 1448. It was suppressed by Peter the Great in 1721, and for nearly two centuries the Russian Orthodox Church was run by bureaucrats of the czar. The Russian monarchy fell during the First World War, and a few years later, the church fell into Lenin’s bloody hands. Under him, and later Stalin, 100,000 priests were murdered. Stalin reestablished the state- run church when he realized religion would be useful in rallying the people against Hitler.
Under communism, there was therefore no possibility for a meeting with the anti-communist Catholic Church. After communism fell, a meeting was eagerly proposed by John Paul II, but Russian Orthodoxy was itself discovering its identity. Under Putin, the Patriarch of Moscow once again can only go as far as the de facto czar permits, and Putin has lavished attention and money on restoring the Russian Orthodox Church to a prominent place in Russian life.
So why the meeting now? Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been bitterly opposed by the Ukrainian Catholic Church. There can be little doubt that the rather muted response of the Vatican to Russian aggression in Ukraine — viewed as a near-betrayal by Ukrainian Catholics — as well as the warm reception Pope Francis gave the largely shunned Putin last summer in Rome, was the realpolitik price to pay to obtain Putin’s approval for Kirill to meet Francis.
Second, Putin wants a RomeMoscow alliance in defence of persecuted Christians in the Middle East. A death blow to ISIL, led by Putin’s ally Bashar Assad in Syria, would massively increase Putin’s influence in the region. If Putin could argue that the pope and the patriarch supported Russia- Syria taking the lead against ISIL, it would make his regional power play more plausible.
Third, Patriarch Kirill has his own reasons, apart from a genuine desire for greater Christian fraternity. In June a meeting of all Orthodox patriarchs — a “PanOrthodox Council” — will be held for the first time in over one thousand years. If Kirill establishes in Havana that he is the lead interlocutor with Rome, the largest Christian Church, it will strengthen his bid for the “Third Rome” to displace the “Second Rome” in the leadership of Orthodoxy.
The politics compromises the purity of the historic Christian encounter, but Catholic- Orthodox relations must proceed that way on occasion. In anticipation of the great jubilee year of 2000, John Paul announced his desire to make a great biblical pilgrimage, including a visit to Greece to walk in the footsteps of St. Paul. The Greek Orthodox Church in Athens indicated, not so politely, that he would not be welcome in Greece. Then Greek President Costis Stephanopolous invited John Paul to visit and forced the Greek Orthodox Church to reverse its objections — a victory for ecumenical progress if not religious liberty.
Putin does not have all the old client states, but Castro’s Cuba will do. Compared to Jerusalem in 1964, it will be a shabby affair, held at the Havana airport as Pope Francis touches down for a few hours on his way to Mexico. The presence as host of the geriatric gangster Raul Castro is offensive to Christian piety, but both Rome and Moscow will attempt to shuffle him off stage as soon as possible.
Shabby though the secular setting will be, and as scandalous as the host remains, the meeting is of enormous significance for the shape of the 21st century and the Christian future. There are few truly historic moments. This is one of them.