"The meeting was the first between a Pope and a Russian Church head since the Western and Eastern branches of Christianity split in the 11th Century.
The two-hour talks on Friday between Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill were held at Havana airport.
The document called on the world community to defend Christians, saying that "in many countries of the Middle East and North Africa whole families, villages and cities of our brothers and sisters in
Christ are being completely exterminated."
"Their churches are being barbarously ravaged and looted, their sacred objects profaned, their monuments destroyed."
Pope and the black-robed Patriarch were holding each other by the shoulders and smiling warmly. Then the leaders of Catholics and Russian Orthodox Christians sat down.
Russian state TV described the talks between the two men as the "meeting of the millennium".
In purely symbolic terms, this is an extraordinary moment, but it is perhaps even more significant in terms of Church diplomacy, the BBC's Will Grant in Havana says.
The Roman Catholic Church has more than a billion members worldwide, while the Russian Orthodox Church numbers about 165 million.
The Russian Church is the largest and most powerful in the Orthodox faith, which is made up of a number of separate churches." BBC
.....and all the world wondered after the beast.
Revelation 13:3
The two-hour talks on Friday between Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill were held at Havana airport.
The document called on the world community to defend Christians, saying that "in many countries of the Middle East and North Africa whole families, villages and cities of our brothers and sisters in
"Their churches are being barbarously ravaged and looted, their sacred objects profaned, their monuments destroyed."
Pope and the black-robed Patriarch were holding each other by the shoulders and smiling warmly. Then the leaders of Catholics and Russian Orthodox Christians sat down.
Russian state TV described the talks between the two men as the "meeting of the millennium".
In purely symbolic terms, this is an extraordinary moment, but it is perhaps even more significant in terms of Church diplomacy, the BBC's Will Grant in Havana says.
The Russian Church is the largest and most powerful in the Orthodox faith, which is made up of a number of separate churches." BBC
.....and all the world wondered after the beast.
Revelation 13:3
