The suddenly announced meeting on Friday between the heads of the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches became possible as a result of the close intersection of church and secular political factors.

The meeting in Havana, scheduled for February 12, is a fact of enormous historical significance, second only to the meeting between Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras in 1964, which led to the lifting of anathemas and the beginning of ecumenical dialogue. Despite repeated offers to meet from several popes, the heads of the Russian Orthodox Church invariably refused.

The reasons cited were insurmountable contradictions of a practical rather than theological and doctrinal nature: the missionary activity of the Catholic Church in the territory that the Russian Orthodox Church considers its own; the conflict between the Uniates (Eastern Catholics) and the Orthodox in Ukraine. While progress has been made on the first point, the second has only worsened due to the deterioration of relations between Kyiv and Moscow.

The Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Pope will meet for the first time in history

Politics / International Relations

However, the meeting will take place, and one of the important reasons is the challenges of intra-Orthodox politics. Patriarch Kirill needs to increase his symbolic weight before the Pan-Orthodox Council, which is scheduled to take place in June this year in Crete after more than 50 years of preparation. The Russian Orthodox Church is the largest, but the Constantinople Church is the most senior. Conflicts with the Constantinople Patriarchate arise from time to time over the jurisdiction of junior churches. In the situation of the church schism in Ukraine and the conflict between Moscow and Kiev, Kirill needs extremely subtle diplomacy in order not to lose the Ukrainian Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.

The question of autonomy from Moscow for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church will not be raised at the council, but its urgency will not go away. It is extremely important for Moscow not to yield influence to the Patriarch of Constantinople, who is in excellent relations with the Pope.

Another important reason for the urgent meeting is secular politics, in which the Moscow Patriarch is much more involved than the Pope. The meeting in Havana would not have been possible if the interests of the Russian Orthodox Church in this matter did not coincide with the interests of the Kremlin, says Boris Falikov from the Center for the Study of Religions at the Russian State University for the Humanities. Maintaining a dialogue with Francis as one of the influential world leaders is extremely valuable for Vladimir Putin. In 2013, after Russia spoke out against the armed operation in Syria, it was Francis who asked Putin not to allow a military solution to the conflict. The meeting with Francis in the Vatican in 2015, which was important for the Russian president against the backdrop of the Ukrainian crisis, was marked by unexpected church-political progress: the Vatican announced the possibility of a step towards the Orthodox Church on the issue of the day of Easter, and the Russian Orthodox Church announced the possibility of a meeting between the Pope and the Patriarch.

There is no point in expecting quick practical results from the meeting at the Havana airport. But the fact that a dialogue that had been delayed for decades has begun cannot be overestimated.

Cuban Christian Revolution