Pope in historic talks with Russian Orthodox Church

Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill embraced and kissed in a historic meeting on Friday, uniting to issue for the protection of Christians from persecution in the Middle East.

The meeting at an airport terminal in Cuba was the first between a Pope and a Russian Church head since the Western and Eastern branches of Christianity split in the 11th Century.

“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,” the religious leaders said in a joint statement, in apparent reference to violence committed by militant groups such as Islamic State.

“Their churches are being barbarously ravaged and looted, their sacred objects profaned, their monuments destroyed.”

They also called for large-scale humanitarian aid to tend to refugees fleeing Iraq and Syria, describing the refugee crisis as “a massive exodus of Christians”.

The leaders were guests of Cuba’s Communist government, that is also sponsoring peace talks between the Colombian government and leftist rebels seeking to end a 50-year war.

"If it continues this way, Cuba will be the capital of unity," Pope Francis said.

The religious leaders came together only a week after the encounter was announced.

Such a historic meeting had eluded their predecessors, but Francis had issued a standing invitation to meet Kirill anytime, anywhere.

The moment came while Kirill was visiting Cuba, and Francis decided to add a brief stop to the Caribbean island on his way from Rome to a long-scheduled visit to Mexico.

"Finally," the Pope said as he and Kirill entered through doors on opposite sides of a room at Havana airport. "We are brothers."

However, the encounter in Havana is unlikely to lead to any immediate rapprochement between the Eastern and Western Churches.

Ahead of the historic meeting, the foreign policy chief of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Illarion, warned that differences still exist between the two churches, in particular on western Ukraine.

One particular issue is the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, that follows eastern church rites but answers to the Holy See.