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This Hasn't Happened in the Church in 1,000 Years, But Is Now

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A historic meeting in Havana, Cuba, today marks progress to the 1,000-year split between the Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Pope Francis met with Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, during a brief stop in Havana's Jose Marti Airport on his way to Mexico.

The two leaders signed a declaration on a shared concern: the persecution of Christians by ISIS in Syria and Iraq.

Dr. Corne Bekker, dean of the divinity school at Regent University, told CBN News the meeting could help the persecuted.

"It could make an extraordinary difference," he said. "Whenever Christian churches come together and stand together against what is happening, this will help churches that are localized in that area."

The Vatican is hoping the meeting will lead to improved relations with the Eastern Orthodox Church. 

Kirill leads the most powerful of the 14 independent Orthodox churches. The churches will meet in Greece this summer in the first pan-Orthodox synod in centuries.

Some believe Kirill is using the meeting with the Pope to position himself as the head of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

"This isn't benevolence," said George Demacopoulos, the Greek-Orthodox chairman of Orthodox Christian studies at Fordham University in New York. "It's not a newfound desire for Christian unity. It is almost entirely about (Kirill) posturing and trying to present himself as the leader of Orthodoxy."

Bekker said it's also clear that Russian President Vladmir Putin allowed Kirill to meet with the pope and likely is using the meeting to assert Russia on the world stage.

Bekker also believes that the meeting marks a symbolic bridge in the divide between the church in the East and the West. The two separated in the Great Schism of 1054 over theological differences. They include disagreement over the Trinity and the celibacy of priests.

More recently, fighting in Ukraine has brought tension between the Orthodox church and the Roman Catholic church. The Russian Orthodox church considers western Ukraine its territory and disapproves papal influence there.

Other popes have met with the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarch, the "first among equals" in the 250-million person Orthodox church. That patriarch is the only one who can speak for global Orthodoxy but the Russian Church is the biggest and wealthiest in Orthodoxy.

After meeting with Kirill in Havana, the pope will fly to Mexico for a week-long visit. He's expected to focus on some of the country's most difficult issues, from poverty to gang violence, corruption, and immigration.

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CBN News is a national/international, nonprofit news organization that provides programming 24 hours a day by cable, satellite and the Internet. Staffed by a group of acclaimed news professionals, CBN News delivers stories to over a million viewers each day without a specific agenda. With its headquarters in Virginia Beach, Va., CBN News has bureaus in Washington D.C., Jerusalem, and elsewhere around the world. What began as a segment on CBN's flagship program, The 700 Club, in the early 1980s, CBN News has since expanded into a multimedia news organization that offers today's news headlines