Pope Francis, Patriarch Kirill Say in Historic Meeting in Cuba: ‘We’re Brothers’

Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill met for more than two hours and signed a joint declaration in Havana, Cuba, marking the first meeting between the heads of the Roman Catholic and the Russian Orthodox churches in nearly 1,000 years and declaring they are “brothers.”

“We spoke as brothers. We have the same baptism. We are bishops. We spoke of our Churches,” Pope Francis said after his meeting with the patriarch, according to Catholic News Agency. “We agreed that unity is created by journeying together.”

The two leaders focused on “a series of initiatives that I believe are viable and can be realized,” the pope said after the meeting, which took place Friday during the pontiff’s brief stop in Cuba prior to his five-day visit to Mexico.

The leaders of the largest churches in the West and the East hadn’t spoken since the split in 1054.

The pope told Patriarch Kirill before the meeting “we’re brothers. It’s clear that this is the will of God.”

Patriarch Kirill said the meeting involved an open discussion “with full awareness of the responsibility of our Churches, for the future of Christianity, and for the future of human civilization,” and gave them “the opportunity to understand and hear the positions of the other.”

“The results of this allow me to assure you that the two Churches will continue to work closely together with Christians in all the world, and with full responsibility to work together against war, so that human life can develop in the entire world,” the patriarch was quoted as saying.

“I do not wish to go forth from here without expressing my sense of gratitude for Cuba and for the Cuban people and for their president Raul Castro,” Pope Francis said. “I thank him for his acts of openness and readiness to give space for this, these talks of unity.”

After their meeting, they signed a joint declaration covering several topics, including Christian unity, the persecution of Christians in the Middle East and growing secularism in Europe, according to Vatican Radio.

“Mindful of the permanence of many obstacles, it is our hope that our meeting may contribute to the re–establishment of this unity willed by God, for which Christ prayed. May our meeting inspire Christians throughout the world to pray to the Lord with renewed fervour for the full unity of all His disciples. In a world which yearns not only for our words but also for tangible gestures, may this meeting be a sign of hope for all people of goodwill!” the declaration said.

“We call upon the international community to act urgently in order to prevent the further expulsion of Christians from the Middle East. In raising our voice in defence of persecuted Christians, we wish to express our compassion for the suffering experienced by the faithful of other religious traditions who have also become victims of civil war, chaos and terrorist violence,” it said.

“We are concerned about the situation in many countries in which Christians are increasingly confronted by restrictions to religious freedom, to the right to witness to one’s convictions and to live in conformity with them. In particular, we observe that the transformation of some countries into secularized societies, estranged from all reference to God and to His truth, constitutes a grave threat to religious freedom. It is a source of concern for us that there is a current curtailment of the rights of Christians, if not their outright discrimination, when certain political forces, guided by an often very aggressive secularist ideology, seek to relegate them to the margins of public life.”