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A joint Catholic-Orthodox leaders’ gathering to celebrate the First Council of Nicaea’s 1,700th anniversary in 2025 is looking likely.
On Sunday the Vatican published a personal letter Pope Francis wrote to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople suggesting the leaders’ gathering.
That same day Cardinal Kurt Koch — who heads the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity — hand-delivered the letter to Patriarch Bartholomew during his visit to Istanbul for the Orthodox Church’s patronal feast of St Andrew.
“The now imminent 1,700th anniversary … will be another opportunity to bear witness to the growing communion that already exists among all who are baptised in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” Francis wrote to Bartholomew.
Reflecting on six decades of Catholic-Orthodox dialogue while looking ahead to future possibilities for unity, Francis was positive.
He acknowledged the progress made since Vatican II’s Unitatis Redintegratio decree marked the Catholic Church’s official entry into the ecumenical movement 60 years ago.
Koch is firm that efforts toward unity must focus on “the innermost centre of self-revelation in Jesus Christ”.
There must be an “ecumenism of blood” he says.
“Christians are not persecuted because they are Catholic, Lutheran or Anglican but because they are Christian.”
Building peace in a time of war
While celebrating the “renewed fraternity” which Catholic-Orthodox communities had achieved since Vatican II, Francis also wrote in his letter to Bartholomew that full communion, particularly sharing “the one Eucharistic chalice”, remains an unfulfilled goal.
Speaking of contemporary global tensions, Francis pointedly connected ecumenical efforts to peace-building.
“The fraternity lived and the witness given by Christians will also be a message for our world plagued by war and violence” his letter says. He specifically mentioned several war-torn countries by name, includingUkraine, Palestine, Israel and Lebanon.
He also highlighted Orthodox representatives’ recent participation in October’s Synod on Synodality.
The traditional Catholic-Orthodox exchange of delegations occurs twice a year. Catholic representatives travel to Istanbul for St Andrew’s feast on November 30 and Orthodox delegates visiting Rome for the feast of Sts Peter and Paul on June 29.
The delegation participated in the Divine Liturgy at the Patriarchal Church of St George, Phanar. It also held discussions with the synodal commission charged with relations with the Catholic Church.
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