romereports.com - ope Francis is known for reaching out to other churches, even meeting with Patriarch Kirill in Havana on behalf of the Russian Orthodox Church. However, there is a smaller Church straddling both the Russian Orthodox and the Vatican: the Russian Byzantine Catholic Church.
As one of the smallest Churches in existence with only 20 parishes in the world, it originally began to heal the schism between Moscow and Rome. This means that Pope Francis is still the head of their Church. They have recently held their first congress in over a century in Italy to address how they can continue to grow, to avoid extinction.
ARCHPRIEST LAWRENCE CROSS
Russian Byzantine Church (Australia)
"What we're trying to do is revitalize our Russian Orthodox Church because it's been seriously neglected by Rome and the authorities, because it's sometimes been something too hot to handle. It looks as if they're setting up a separate rival Orthodox Church in Russia, which is not what it is. It gets caught between the Vatican and the Russian Orthodox Church.”