The Pope and the Patriarch

The main point of discussion was, “how far have fashions
in clerical garb diverged in 1000 years?”

It’s been a historical day folks. “Pope Francis” met Patriarch Kirill (head of the Russian Orthodox church) at the airport in Havana, Cuba as the two religious superstars were headed for different points on the globe. Bergoglio was on his way to Mexico, and Kirill was headed for parts unknown.

The Russian Orthodox church is the largest now among a number of “autocephalous”, or “independent” Orthodox bodies, which are descended from the eastern churches when Rome split with them in 1054 AD. Today, the individual “Orthodox” church bodies in each country, while professing the same “faith”, and claiming the same “apostolic succession” of bishops, are functionally and governmentally independent from one another.

After the meeting, “Pope Francis” 

proposed replacing the papal skullcap with 

a Mexican Sombrero for all state meetings.

Anecdotally, Constantinople has been considered to be “second Rome”, but after the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453, Moscow, where the Russian Orthodox church is centered, has been popularly considered to be “third Rome”.

One major point of discussion was how far fashion in clerical vestments had diverged since the eleventh century. After the meeting, exhibiting how “development of doctrine” works in real life, “Pope Francis”, exhibiting a bit of headgear-envy, proposed that the papal skullcap be replaced at State meetings with the Mexican Sombrero.