Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II has called on the Vatican to abandon its "unhealthy competition" with the Russian Orthodox Church.
"We need to return to the spiritual experience of an undivided Church, to living in a world of trust and love," says the patriarch's address to a religious conference being held in Moscow on Wednesday.
"What counts most is to give up confrontation, unhealthy competition and, primarily, proselytism [converting Orthodox followers to Catholicism]. Only this approach will lead to effective cooperation between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches," he said.
In 2004, it will be 950 years since the Great Schism on July 16, 1054, and 800 years since Constantinople was put under siege by crusaders, tragic events which, as Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad Kirill once said, "dissected the body of Europe."
"The two churches' division was a tragedy for the world's entire Christian population," Alexy II said.
"Our common aim is to recognize past mistakes and avoid repeating them today," he said.