Word: pope
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Relations had long been chilly between the one-billion strong Roman Catholic Church and the largest Orthodox Church (which claims 110 million adherents though perhaps less than 5% are regular churchgoers). There was little hope for major reconciliation during the 26-year reign of Pope John Paul II, a Polish native who was seen by Russian religious leaders as a threat for poaching faithful in its sphere of influence...
Like a new Pope stepping out of the conclave or the latest U.S. Supreme Court appointment, the election of the Russian Orthodox Patriarch comes with a fundamental question for anyone who's just nabbed a lifetime post atop his career ladder: Will he be in the future how he's been in the past...
...Moscow with a very long and public resume. He served for nearly two decades as head of the Church's office of external affairs, a kind of roaming secretary of state, the Russian church's ambassador on the world's religious chessboard. (See pictures of the Pope in France...
Cyril, who'd 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...