Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis to meet on Cuba on February 12

Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis will sign a joint declaration following a meeting on Cuba, Metropolitan of Volokolamsk Hilarion said.

He told a briefing in Moscow the meeting will take place in Havana at the Hose Marti Airport on February 12.

BREAKING: #PopeFrancis to meet Patriarch Kirill Feb 12 in Cuba; huge step forward in Catholic-Russian Orth relations pic.twitter.com/Y1DHYhRaDd

— Catholic News Svc (@CatholicNewsSvc) February 5, 2016

"The possibility of Pope Francis coming to Russia is not being discussed today. Rather, a meeting [between Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia] on neutral territory, as we said, was discussed from the very beginning," Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Synodal Department for External Church Relations, told a press conference in Moscow on Feb. 5.

"Cuba matches all characteristics of such neutral territory," he said.

"Besides, Cuba is part of the region where Christianity has been vigorously developing," he added.

The dialogue between the two churches has been developing irrespective of relations between Russia and the Vatican as states, he said.

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