Raúl meets with head of Russian Orthodox Church
Raúl Castro on Friday (May 8) met with the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Kirill Gundyaev, and invited him to return to Cuba.
“It gives me great pleasure to meet you again,” said Castro to Kirill, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, during a meeting in the Patriarch’s Palace. “We are always happy to remember your first visit to Cuba and hope that it won’t be the last.”
Kirlli was in Cuba in October 2008, when he was Metropolitan of Smolensk, and visited Fidel Castro, who was recovering from intestinal surgery. Kirill, who was in effect the Church’s foreign relations minister, was attending the consecration of a new Orthodox church in Havana.
“Now we want you to be our guest as Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church,” Raúl Castro continued. “These words can be considered an invitation, which we shall later confirm officially.”
Kirill thanked the President and said that several thousand Russians and Russian-speaking people live in Cuba who are of the Eastern Orthodox faith.
“I would like to express once more my gratitude to Comandante Fidel, who supported the idea of building an Orthodox church [in Havana,]” responded Kirill. “That church is working now in favor of Russo-Cuban relations.”
According to a statement by the Russian Orthodox Church at the time, “Fidel Castro noted that the Russian Orthodox Church played a great role in the life of Russia today and helps to develop its relations with other countries. He believes that the religious factor is very important for the development of dialogue between Russia and Cuba.”
Kirill told Raúl Castro that Russia and Cuba have a special relationship that is impossible to break. It was formed over decades, he said, and “a particularly important period in our relationship came after the Cuban Revolution.”
“Our people took to heart the aspirations of the Cuban people,” Kirill added. “These years have been marked by a remarkable interaction between our countries — an unforgettable experience that is impossible to reject.”
“The years pass, but we and the Cubans remain brothers,” he said. And in a possible allusion to the very friendly encounter Thursday at the Kremlin between presidents Putin and Castro, he said:
“Most important is the sympathy between the peoples. This factor needs to be considered by all who make decisions. The sympathy of the peoples to each other is a very important factor in the shaping of political dialogue.”
On Saturday (May 9), Castro will attend the Victory Day parade on Red Square that will mark the 70th anniversary of the surrender of Nazi Germany and the end of World War II in Europe.
Kirill pointed out that, at the time, the Russians “had many friends around the world, including Cuba. The Cubans were on the side of the Soviet Union and established committees to support our country.”
