Pope Francis met with Patriarch Kirill at Havana’s airport Feb. 12, 2016, in the first summit between a pope and a Patriarch of Moscow.
The Russian Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church with an estimated 150 million members, accounting for more than half of the world’s Orthodox Christians.
Pope Francis has sought to strengthen Catholic-Orthodox ties since his election in 2013.
In the La Nacion interview, the pope also responded to a question about why he has not named Putin or Russia in his comments on the Ukraine war.
Pope Francis had been criticized for not calling out Russia or President Vladimir Putin by name in his speeches since the start of the invasion of Ukraine.
“A pope never names a head of state, much less a country, which is superior to its head of state,” he said.
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