MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia traveled to Cuba, Paraguay, Brazil and a Russian station on an island off the coast of Antarctica as part of his February 11-21 trip.
"Pilgrimages of this kind allow our homeland, our church, to community with so many people in the world. People are beginning to understand what is Orthodoxy, what is Russian Orthodoxy, what is our country," Patriarch Kirill told reporters.
The meeting was hailed as a milestone because it marked the first time a Catholic pope and an Orthodox patriarch met since Christianity split into western and eastern branches in 1054.
The results of Patriarch Kirill’s travels are scheduled to be summarized at the February 24 press conference in the Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency building, attended by the patriarch’s press secretary and a number of church liaisons with the media.