Pope Francis, the leader of the world's
1.2 billion Roman Catholics, on Friday met with Patriarch Kirill,
leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, in Havana, Cuba.
According to The New York Times,
President Vladimir Putin had a hand in arranging the historic
meeting.
“For Francis, the meeting was an
ecumenical and diplomatic coup that eluded his predecessors but that
also opened him to criticism that his embrace of the Russian
patriarch would indirectly give a boost to Mr. Putin as he wages a
war in Syria and continues to meddle in Ukraine,” the
paper wrote.
In a joint statement, the two leaders
said that they “regret” that other unions “have been placed on
the same level as” heterosexual marriage.
“The family is based on marriage, an
act of freely given and faithful love between a man and a woman,”
the statement reads in part. “It is love that seals their union
and teaches them to accept one another as a gift. Marriage is a
school of love and faithfulness. We regret that other forms of
cohabitation have been placed on the same level as this union, while
the concept, consecrated in the biblical tradition, of paternity and
maternity as the distinct vocation of man and woman in marriage is
being banished from the public conscience.”
(Related: Increasing
support for LGBT rights fueling rise of ISIS, head of Russian
Orthodox Church claims.)