Bangladesh Canada and Beyond: February 2016

A kiss of peace between Russian Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis when they met at Cuba's Havana airport VIP lounge on February 12, 2016
Photo courtesy: telegraph.co.uk/

Pope Francis meets privately with Patriarch Kirill in Cuba
Photo courtesy: indianexpress.com

Pope Francis meets with Patriarch Kirill

Cartoon courtesy: Osmani Simanca - Brazil (through www.caglecartoons.com)

Exactly after 962 years, leaders of both the separated Churches -- Roman Catholic Church and Russian Orthodox Church -- met and embraced each other in Cuba's Havana airport lounge on February 12.

Pope Francis, leader of the 1-billion-member Roman Catholic Church, and Patriarch Kirill, leader of the world's 165 million Orthodox Christians, met and exchanged the kiss of peace in their first historic encounter.

"We are brothers," Pope Francis said as he embraced Patriarch Kirill. Then the patriarch responded,"Now things are easier," as he and the pope exchanged the kiss of peace. Finally the pope said,"This is the will of God."

For more details on their visit and background information on relations between these two Churches, please read the following:

Pope and Russian Orthodox Leader Meet in Historic Step (The New York Times)
Francis meets the Russian patriarch, declaring: 'We are brothers' (National Catholic Reporter)
Watch historic meeting between Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill (National Catholic Reporter)
A brotherly embrace brings pope and Russian patriarch together (Catholic News Service)
After 1,000-year split, pope and Russian patriarch embrace in Cuba (Reuters)
Joint Declaration of Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill (Vatican Radio)
Pope and Patriarch call for an end to terrorism and persecution of Christians (Vatican Radio)
Meeting between Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis concluded (The Russian Orthodox Church Department for External Church Relations, Russia)
Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill Bring Christianity Closer Together (Havana Times)
The Pope Just Had a Meeting 1,000 Years in the Making. Here's Why. (Huffingtonpost.com)
Five Insights About Today's Pope Francis - Patriarch Kirill Meeting (National Catholic Register)
Why Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill Made Christian History in Cuba (Christianity Today)
Pope and Patriarch Meeting in Cuba a Milestone (America magazine)
"Heretic and traitor": Fundamentalists term Orthodox Patriarch Kirill who met with Pope Francis in Cuba (asianews.it)
The Eastern Schism (Catholic Encyclopedia)
The split of 1054 between the Orthodox and Catholics (CatholicBridge.com)
Eastern and Western Christianity: from the 6th century (historyworld.net)
Timeline of the East-West Schism of the Catholic and Orthodox Church (CatholicBlridge.com)
Timeline of Orthodox Church and Roman Catholic relations (Orthodox Wiki)

(Updated on March 5, 2016)

Donald Trump in one of his expressive moods

Photo courtesy: photographywallpapers.bigbangfish.com/

Cartoon courtesy: The Toronto Star

Cartoon courtesy: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Donald J. Trump, commonly known as Donald Trump, is one of several U.S. presidential candidates vying for the Republican Party nomination in mid-2016.

In his campaign trails, he was most vociferous, disrespectful of other candidates, rude to some women, and racially biased. Some called him a bigot, megalomaniac, narcissistic, misogynist, racist, rude, and divider rather than a uniter.

In spite of all these, in the last six months, he bulldozed his way in the campaign and was the frontrunner in the Republican voters' opinion polls.

Yesterday, in the Iowa caucus, Ted Cruz, another co-campaigner of Trump who was trailing behind him in the polls, won the votes, Trump being in the second place. Donald Trump, unexpectedly, accepted the results gracefully and congratulated Ted Cruz! He also said that he would keep on campaigning.

It would be interesting to see how far Donald Trump can go with is brash, quirky, unpredictable, and vindictive behaviour because whatever he did and said so far during his campaign, would be difficult for a person with common sense to accept and support.

Please read the following to know this colourful personality better:

His Life: