HAVANA (AP) — Pope Francis has landed in Cuba for the first-ever papal meeting with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, a historic development in the 1,000-year schism within Christianity.
The pope’s jetliner set down at Havana’s Jose Marti International Airport, where he’s scheduled to have a two-hour meeting with Patriarch Kirill before heading off on a five-day visit to Mexico.
While the meeting Havana has been hailed in some Catholic circles as an important ecumenical breakthrough, some have complained that Francis has also come under criticism for essentially allowing himself to be used by a by a Russia eager to assert itself among other Orthodox Christians and on the world stage at a moment when the country is increasingly isolated from the West.
