In Havana, began a meeting between Patriarch Kirill and Pope

In Havana, began the meeting of Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Kirill and Pope Francis.

At the meeting, which began at about 21:20 Kyiv time, Kirill and Francis hugged and greeted each other. After that they pose in front of photographers and sat down next to each other in armchairs and started to talk.

The first words of Patriarch Kirill in the first seconds of the meeting were:" We meet in the right place at the right time. We have no obstacles to organizing new meetings .

Pope said: "I have great expectations for this meeting in my heart".

It was reported that the Central theme of the conversation of the heads of the two churches will be the persecution of Christians, the Patriarch and the Pontiff will discuss bilateral relations and international policy. As previously reported , a joint statement of the Pope and the Patriarch will be in its nature political and not theological.

The text has been agreed, reported in the ROC. The signing by the Patriarch Kirill and the Pope Declaration is tentatively scheduled at 00:30 GMT. As expected, the meeting will last two hours.