564
edits
Changes
removed unsourced POV
John Paul II visited other heavily Orthodox areas such as [[Church of Ukraine|Ukraine]], despite lack of welcome at times, and he said that an end to the Schism was one of his fondest wishes.
The Pope had also been saying during the entire pontificate that one of his greatest dreams was to visit Russia, which never actually happened. He had made several attempts to solve the problems which arose during centuries between the Roman Catholic Church and [[Church of Russia|Russian Orthodox Church]], like giving back the Kazan [[Icon]] of the [[Mother of God]] in August 2004. However, officials of the [[Church of Russia]] were not that enthusiastic, giving statements like: "The question of the visit of the Pope in Russia is not connected by the journalists with the problems between the Churches, which are now unreal to solve, but with giving back one of many sacred things, which were illegally stolen from Russia." (Fr. Vsevolod Chaplin). There were also statements saying that the icon which was returned was one of four copies made of the original icon, which is still in an unknown location.