November 11, 2013
Pope Francis will receive Russian President Vladi-
mir Putin on Nov. 25, an encounter that could help
mend strained relations between the Vatican and
the Russian Orthodox Church. Russian-Vatican relations have been fraught since the 1991 breakup of
the Soviet Union, with Moscow accusing the Roman
Catholic Church of trying to poach believers from the
Russian Orthodox Church, a charge the Vatican denies. But Putin is the first Kremlin leader since the
1917 Bolshevik Revolution to publicly profess religious faith — to the Orthodox church — and has
several times advocated ending the long feud between the two major Christian churches. Putin, who
also met the pontiff’s two immediate predecessors,
could invite the pope to visit Russia, diplomats said.
Popes Benedict and John Paul had standing invitations from the Russian government but could not go
because they received no matching invitation from
the Orthodox Church. Francis would need the same
to go to Russia. Another dispute between the churches concerns the fate of many church properties that
Soviet leader Joseph Stalin ordered confiscated from
Eastern Rite Catholics, who worship in an Orthodox
liturgy but owe their allegiance to Rome. Stalin
gave the Catholic property to the Russian Orthodox
Church, but after the fall of communism, the Eastern
Rite Catholics took back many sites, leading to a rise
in tensions. The Russian Orthodox Church, which has
resurged since the collapse of the Soviet Union, has
some 165 million members in former Soviet republics
including Russia and other states.
Spanish police arrested the fugitive leader of one of
Colombia’s most violent gangs, accused of killings
and drug-smuggling. The drugs squad seized Cipriam
Manuel Palencia Gonzalez, 34 -- alias “Visaje” -- under
an international arrest warrant for homicide, a police
statement said. “Palencia Gonzalez is considered the
main leader of Los Urabenos, ???
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