Reuters News
MOSCOW – A first meeting between the Pope and the head of the Russian Orthodox Church is increasingly likely, a senior Vatican cardinal said on a visit to Moscow on Tuesday, after centuries of bitter rivalry between the churches.
The eastern and western branches of Christianity have been split since the Great Schism of 1054 and relations between the Vatican and the Russian Orthodox Church have been increasingly strained since the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union.
Pope and the Russian Patriarch have never met although Catholic leaders have in the past met with Ecumenical Patriarchs, spiritual leaders of the worldwide Orthodox church based in Istanbul. Click here to finish reading.
