Pope Francis speaks out on healing the rift between the Catholic and Orthodox churches

Pope Francis lamented centuries of hostility and prejudice that have divided Catholics and Orthodox as he met Friday with the leader of Cyprus’ Greek Orthodox Church and pointed to works of charity as a means to help heal the rift between the Catholic West and Orthodox East.

Sitting in front of the gilded iconostasis, or altar, and as the Orthodox clergymen chanted, Francis lamented the "broad furrows" that history had cleaved between Catholics and Orthodox as a result of the 1,000-year-old schism, when God wanted all Christians united. 

"Centuries of division and separation have made us assimilate, even involuntarily, hostility and prejudice with regard to one another, preconceptions often based on scarce and distorted information, and spread by an aggressive and polemical literature," Francis said. "This too makes crooked the path of God, which is straight and directed to concord and unity."