VATICAN CITY (CNS) — After almost three decades of tense Catholic-Russian Orthodox relations, Pope Francis will meet Patriarch Kirill of Moscow Feb. 12 in Cuba on the pope’s way to Mexico.

It will be the first-ever meeting of a pope and Moscow patriarch, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, told reporters Feb. 5.

As Pope Francis travels to Mexico and as Patriarch Kirill makes an official visit to Cuba, the two will meet at Havana’s José Martí International Airport and plan to sign a joint declaration, Fr. Lombardi said. The pope will leave Rome earlier than planned to allow time for the meeting without forcing any changes to his schedule in Mexico, he added.

The meeting “will mark an important stage in relations between the two Churches,” said a joint declaration on the meeting.

The Cuba meeting was not an “improvisation,” Fr. Lombardi said; it took two years of intense planning and negotiations to schedule. Even when the idea of a meeting was just a vague hope, both Catholic and Orthodox officials insisted it would have to take place on “neutral” territory rather than at the Vatican or in Russia.

Being the first ever meeting of a pope and Russian patriarch, he said, “is an event that, in the ecumenical journey and in the dialogue between Christian confessions, has an extraordinary importance.”

The meeting will come as representatives of Orthodox Churches from around the world are preparing for a pan-Orthodox Council meeting in Crete in June. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians, “naturally, has been informed” of plans for the pope and Patriarch Kirill to meet and expressed “his joy for this step forward,” Fr. Lombardi said.

Holding a simple meeting with a Moscow patriarch, spiritual leader of the world’s largest Orthodox Church, was a failed dream of St. John Paul II and an opportunity that escaped retired Pope Benedict XVI as well.

Repeatedly after the Soviet bloc began dissolving in 1989 and the once-repressed Eastern Catholic Churches began functionally publicly again, Russian Orthodox leaders insisted there could be no meeting between a pope and a patriarch as long as Catholics were “proselytizing” in what the Orthodox considered their territory.

The Vatican insisted the Catholic Church rejects proselytism, which it defines as actively seeking converts from another Christian community, including through pressure or offering enticements. The Russian Orthodox had insisted such types of proselytism occurred in both Russia and Ukraine, although the Vatican said that when asked, the Orthodox provided no proof.

St. John Paul re-established the Latin-rite Catholic hierarchy of Russia in 2002, which led to the Russian Orthodox withdrawing from dialogue with the Vatican for several years. Even as tensions over the Catholic presence in Russia waned, the Russian Orthodox insisted a bigger example of proselytism was the loss of its churches in the newly independent Ukraine.

The Vatican recognized there were some instances of excessive zeal early on, but rejected the use of the term “proselytism” as a blanket description for the re-establishment of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. The Ukrainian Catholic Church was outlawed by the Soviet government in the 1940s and its property was confiscated by the government, which in turn gave some churches to the Russian Orthodox. Byzantine-rite Catholics who once could worship only in a Russian Orthodox church, returned to Catholic services and sought the return of Church property.

Fr. Lombardi said the fact that a meeting has been scheduled “allows one to think that on various points dialogue has matured and allowed some things that were once seen as obstacles to be overcome.”

“Every step toward dialogue, understanding, a will to draw closer to each other, understand each other and walk together” after “a past of distancing themselves and even of polemics and division is a positive sign for everyone,” especially considering the huge numbers of Catholics and Russian Orthodox in the world, the spokesman said.

Jesuit Father David Nazar, rector of Rome’s Pontifical Oriental Institute and a Ukrainian Catholic from Canada, told Catholic News Service, “If this were to take place, it would be big news in the Year of Mercy. To make a step in this direction is beautiful, but also irreversible.”

Especially for Catholics in Russia and Ukraine, he said, relations with the Russian Orthodox are complicated, including because of the close relationship between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian government, which annexed the Crimea and is supporting fighting in Eastern Ukraine.

Fr. Nazar described his reaction to the news as “cautiously optimistic” and said he hoped it would mark “a new beginning” in Catholic-Russian Orthodox relations.

— By Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — An encounter with Jesus changes people’s lives, and that should be especially noticeable in those who are consecrated completely to serving God, the Church and others, Pope Francis said.

“One who has this encounter becomes a witness and makes the encounter possible for others, too,” he said Feb. 2, the feast of the Presentation of the Lord.

Overlapping by two months, the Catholic Church’s special Year of Consecrated Life has led to the Jubilee Year of Mercy, emphasizing God’s love and mercy for each individual and the mission to share that experience with the world, the pope told thousands of consecrated men and women who joined him in St. Peter’s Basilica and hundreds of others who watched on screens outside once the basilica was full.

The Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica began with the traditional blessing of candles and a prayer that God would guide his people toward his son, “the light that has no end.”

The feast day commemorates the 40th day after Jesus’ birth when, in accordance with ancient Jewish practice, Mary and Joseph took Him to the temple and presented Him to the Lord. The feast’s Gospel reading from St. Luke recounts how the aged Simeon and Anna were praying in the temple at the time and recognized Jesus as the Messiah.

The event, the pope said, is a “feast of encounter,” not just the meeting of Jesus with Simeon and Anna, but the encounter of people’s hopes and expectations for a savior with the fulfillment of those hopes in Jesus.

Christ’s birth is the ultimate encounter, he said; God’s decision to have his son born into the world, to live and suffer and die for the salvation of humanity, shows that he did not want to “remain outside of our drama, but wanted to share our lives.”

In the same way, whether living in a cloistered convent or traveling the world as a missionary, Pope Francis said, “consecrated men and women are called to be a concrete and prophetic sign of this closeness of God and of sharing with the fragile, sinful and wounded condition of people today.”

Pope Francis, a Jesuit, spoke as one of the consecrated people, telling the congregation that as Christians and as religious “we are guardians of awe.”

The experience of an encounter with Jesus constantly must be renewed, he said. One’s spiritual life must never be simply routine, the mission and charisms of an order must never be “crystallized into abstract doctrine” and the spiritual insights of the order’s founder “are not to be sealed in a bottle. They aren’t museum pieces.”

“Our founders were moved by the Spirit and weren’t afraid to get their hands dirty” as they ministered in Jesus’ name to real people living real lives, the pope said. “They didn’t stop in the face of obstacles or when others misunderstood them because they preserved in their hearts the awe of having encountered Christ.”

“They did not domesticate the grace of the Gospel,” he said, but lived with an “all-consuming desire to share it with others.”

“We, too, are called today to make prophetic and courageous choices,” the pope said. In that way, “others will be attracted to the light and can encounter the father’s mercy.”

— By Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service. Follow Wooden on Twitter: @Cindy_Wooden.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (CNS) — Middle linebacker Luke Kuechly of the Carolina Panthers, the team going up against the Denver Broncos in the Feb. 7 Super Bowl, credits his parents and his Catholic faith for making a positive impact on his NFL career and his outlook on life.

“I went to a Catholic grade school, Jesuit high school and a Jesuit college, and I think you just learn certain things growing up in that environment. Really, the biggest thing I learned from it is respect and to treat people correctly,” he said after a Jan. 28 practice.

“Your background has something to do with it, but my parents I think were the biggest impact on that, as far as to be a good person. You know, it’s not that hard, as long as you’re nice to people, everything works out,” he told the Catholic News Herald, newspaper of the Diocese of Charlotte. “Treat people how you want to be treated. It’s pretty straightforward stuff, and I think it makes things easier.”

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Check out Kuechly’s teammate

He’s from a Catholic school in the Diocese of Phoenix

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Kuechly, a product of St. Xavier High School, a Catholic boys school, near his hometown of Evendale, Ohio, and a graduate of Boston College, is known as a fierce competitor who does not give up, a natural and humble leader, the person everyone calls “the nicest guy on the team.”

When he was in the fourth grade, Kuechly first played organized football with Cincinnati’s Catholic Youth Organization. In high school, he was a two-time All Greater Catholic League selection.

Kuechly, a three-time All America linebacker for Boston College, was the ninth overall pick in the 2012 NFL draft.

He was named the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year in the 2012 season, and followed that up by being named the NFL Defensive Player of the Year by The Associated Press in 2013, joining Lawrence Taylor as the only players in NFL history to win the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year and NFL Defensive Player of the Year in successive years.

Kuechly said he doesn’t really have a special patron saint or a special prayer he always says before a game.

“We say a couple prayers in the locker room before games, though,” he said.

The team is often seen praying at each game, and players are known as much for their charitable works off the field, especially for children in need.

Charitable works also were getting attention from supporters of both teams headed to the Super Bowl.

Gerry Carter, CEO and executive director of Catholic Charities of Charlotte, and Larry Smith, CEO and president of Catholic Charities of Denver, agreed to raise $50,000 by the end of the game in a fundraiser called Charity Bowl 50.

“It’s a worthy cause that will have a major impact on the lives of the poor and needy in each of our communities,” Carter said. “All of our team’s fans and Catholic Charities in the Carolinas look forward to this challenge, and the inevitable victory that will be ours.”

Smith responded that Denver is not afraid of a challenge.

“Through Charity Bowl 50, Denver football fans have a real opportunity to show they have the best team spirit and a passion for serving others,” Smith said. “This challenge is a true win for both Denver and Charlotte, but there’s no doubt we will seize the victory.”

Anyone can participate in Charity Bowl 50 to help one of the charities raise the most money by donating online at CharityBowl50.org.

The site began accepting online donations Jan. 31 and will take them until the end of the Super Bowl Feb. 7. The donations will be tallied and counted toward the total amount raised. The winning charity’s CEO planned to hold a victory celebration during which charity employees will dump cold sports drinks over him. The losing charity’s CEO will dress in the opposing team’s colors and send a message of congratulations to the other charity.

The competition can be tracked on social media with the hashtag #CharityBowl50.

— By SueAnn Howell, Catholic News Service. Howell is a senior reporter with the Catholic News Herald, newspaper of of the Diocese of Charlotte.