SAO PAULO, February 20. /TASS/. Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia has arrived on Saturday evening in Brazils’ Sao Paulo, the last stopover on his two-week tour of Latin America.
Sao Paulo is Patriarch Kirill’s third destination in Brazil after Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro. The Russian Orthodox Church leader will serve a liturgy in the Cathedral of St. Paul the Apostle of the Patriarchate of Antioch. He will be a guest of honor at a dinner on behalf of the Sao Paulo and Brasilia archdiocese of the Patriarchate of Antioch and will visit the Annunciation Cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church. On Sunday evening, the Patriarch and his delegation will take off for Moscow.
The Patriarch is on a first tour of Latin American countries on February 11-22. He has already visited Cuba, Paraguay and Antarctica and had a historical meeting with Pope Francis in Havana. The meeting took place at Havana’s international airport on February 12. The two religious leaders signed a joint declaration calling on the world community to pool efforts to protect Christians in the Middle East and in other regions. It was the first-ever meeting between the primates of the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches after the schism of 1054 when the formerly united Christian Church broke in two.