Word: benedict
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...been serving as interim head of the Church since the Dec. 5 death of Patriarch Alexy II, was particularly adept at keeping warm relations with both Kremlin insiders and religious counterparts outside of Russia. His many contacts with the West, including a meeting in 2007 with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican, helped earn Cyril a reputation as a pragmatic reformer who favored moving his Church closer to Catholicism after a millennium-long schism...
Tensions had been easing under Benedict, who has made rapprochement with the Orthodox a priority of his papacy, but a hoped-for meeting never materialized between the new Pope and Alexy, who died after serving for 18 years as the first Patriarch in the post-Soviet era. (See pictures of Pope Benedict's visit to America...
...opening questions of the new reign in Moscow is whether attempts to pull off that unprecedented Pope-meets-Patriarch summit gets put on the fast track. Benedict sent his best wishes Wednesday, notably long and gushing in his stated desire to move the two Churches closer. "May the Almighty bless your efforts to maintain Communion among the Orthodox Churches and to seek that fullness of Communion which is the goal of Catholic-Orthodox collaboration and dialogue," the Pope wrote. "I assure Your Holiness of my spiritual closeness and of the Catholic Church's commitment to cooperate with the Russian Orthodox...
...This, my friends, is our tour de force. Our magnum opus. Our eggs benedict, if you will...
...violence ends soon enough and the papal trip can be salvaged, Benedict's arrival in the region would inevitably be much more political than he might have initially hoped. "He wanted to make a voyage of faith. But the context has changed," says the Vatican source. "Now the focus would be on peace. It could give him the chance to leave a legacy there." First, though, he must pray for the chance to even make such a complicated pilgrimage, as the Middle East's collision of faith and politics grows bloodier...