Word: cyrill
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Behar and the Nawab of Rangpur, the rulers of two minor kingdoms that faced each other near the Teesta River, staked games of chess with plots of land. To settle their debts, they passed chits - pieces of paper representing the territory won or lost - back and forth. When Sir Cyril Radcliffe, the law lord who partitioned India, drew the 1947 border, Cooch Behar went to India and Rangpur to Bangladesh - including the people who lived on the two kings' 162 "chit mahals," or paper palaces. Their villages, caught on the wrong side of the border, are now small islands...
Other Catholic leaders hailed the choice of Cyril, who received 508 of the 700 votes cast at Tuesday's balloting among a commission of lay and clergy leaders in Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral. He defeated a conservative rival, Metropolitan Kliment. "This was the best result we could have hoped for," said one Rome-based Catholic priest involved in ecumenical dialogue. "He's always been a moderate, and open minded, and now that he's reached the top, he's free to pursue closer ties with [the Vatican]." (See 10 things to do in Rome...
...trip to Rome, Cyril offered a notably conciliatory, though still vague, view of the long-separated sister churches. "Catholics and Orthodox feel that they belong to the same family, since they share the same Christian values," he was quoted as saying by Vatican Radio. "In order to overcome the divisions the most important thing is that the East and the West leave aside considering the other as foreigners...
Still, some insiders in Moscow say the Western view of Cyril as a closet liberal is naive, noting that he is as conservative as most other Metropolitans, and a longtime operator within the Church's tight bureaucratic machinery. He is believed to have maintained close relations with Vladimir Putin since he took over as Russian President in 2000. Both Putin, who is now Prime Minister, and current President Dmitry Medvedev, called the new Patriarch soon after the votes were tallied on Tuesday. It is widely believed that no Patriarch can emerge from the tightly controlled process of candidates? selection...
...real" Cyril will begin to emerge after he is installed Sunday in a lavish ceremony in Moscow. Benedict, who also was a prominent figure before his 2005 election, has both confounded and confirmed the reputation as a hardliner with which he arrived at the top job. Like the Roman pontiff, one thing that Cyril will surely find is that his new post will provide surprises for which all his previous experience could simply not have prepared him. And when he responds, the world will take notice...