Η Α.Θ.Παναγιότης, ο Οικουμενικός Πατριάρχης Βαρθολομαίος απέστειλε στην Α.Αγιότητα τον Πάπα Ρώμης Φραγκίσκο θερμό συγχαρητήριο Μήνυμα για τη Θρονική Εορτή της Εκκλησίας της Ρώμης, με την ευκαιρία της μνήμης των Πρωτοκορυφαίων Αποστόλων Πέτρου και Παύλου. Το Πατριαρχικό Γράμμα παρέδωσε ο επί κεφαλής της Πατριαρχικής Αντιπροσωπείας που μετέβη στη Ρώμη, Σεβ. Μητροπολίτης Γέρων Χαλκηδόνος κ. Εμμανουήλ, Πρόεδρος της Συνοδικής Επιτροπής επί του Διαλόγου μετά της Ρωμαιοκαθολικής Εκκλησίας και Συμπρόεδρος της νεοσύστατης Μικτής Επιτροπής μεταξύ των Εκκλησιών Ρώμης και Κωνσταντινουπόλεως για την προετοιμασία του κοινού εορτασμού της 1700ης επετείου από την σύγκληση της Α´ Οικουμενικής Συνόδου στη Νίκαια της Βιθυνίας, συνοδευόμενος από τον Σεβ. Μητροπολίτη Σικάγου κ. Ναθαναήλ και τον Πανοσιολ. Διάκονο κ. Οικουμένιο, Υπογραμματέα της Αγίας και Ιεράς Συνόδου. 

Ακολουθεί το Μήνυμα της Α.Θ. Παναγιότητος του Οικουμενικού Πατριάρχου Βαρθολομαίου προς την Α.Αγιότητα τον Πάπα Ρώμης Φραγκίσκο

Your Holiness, beloved brother in Christ,

Amidst the turbulence and travails of our time, God has granted us once again the opportunity to extend our fraternal congratulatory wishes to Your Holiness on this bright and luminous festival of the Chief Apostles Peter and Paul, the Thronal Feast of the Church of Rome, through our Patriarchal Delegation consisting of His Eminence Metropolitan Emmanuel of Chalcedon, His Eminence Metropolitan Nathanael of Chicago and the Very Reverend Deacon Œcumenius Amanatidis, Deputy Secretary of the Holy and Sacred Synod and Secretary of this year’s venerable representation. Each year on this day we feel the strengthening of the blessed bond of charity between us, which spurs and inspires us on the path towards the fullness of unity.

In our hymns for this great feast, we exclaim that “though separated in body,” Peter and Paul “were united in the Spirit” (Vespers of the Feast, Stichera). Their unity of mind and heart by the grace of the Holy Spirit is the great exemplar and model of unity for us all. It is ultimately their perfect unity in Christ that made of this God-chosen pair “the glorious adornment of Rome, and the delight of the whole world” (Ibid.). Our own pursuit of unity takes its inspiration from theirs, and our goal must be to share together fully “the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3) through the re-establishment of Eucharistic communion. 

We have rejoiced at Your Holiness’ efforts to strengthen and deepen the theological and practical understanding of synodality in the life of the Church. We pray fervently that the second and concluding Synod on Synodality, to be held later this year in Rome, will yield abundant fruit, and help to draw us ever closer to one another. Synodality is a difficult path, and there are many who would reject it simply for that reason. Yet it is, as Your Holiness has said, “a constitutive element of the Church,” and as the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church held in Crete in 2016 declared, for the Orthodox, “the Church in herself is a Council (Synodos), established by Christ and guided by the Holy Spirit” (Encyclical I.3). We stand with Your Holiness in Your desire for “an entirely synodal Church” (Address on the 50th Anniversary of the Institution of the Synod of Bishops).

We know that the achievement of Christian unity is both an ineffable gift of grace and an ongoing task. We are heartened by the continuing work of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between our Churches, whose document on “Synodality and Primacy in the Second Millennium” issued at Alexandria in 2023 is still being received and studied by the faithful with great interest. The recent meeting of the Dialogue’s Coordinating Committee, graciously hosted by the Archdiocese of Bari, has successfully initiated the process of drafting two documents dealing with the historical and theological issues related to the Filioque and Infallibility, respectively. This marks a crucial step in the Dialogue, where we can freely and openly approach each other on issues that have long divided us, only now without resorting to groundless and destructive polemics, but seeking in common, with humility and love, the way of healing and truth. Here again we look to the Chief Apostles, those “unbreakable foundations of the divine dogmas” (Matins of the Feast, Praises), for inspiration and guidance, asking for their constant aid that “we all attain unto the unity of the faith … unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13).

Giving thanks for Your Holiness’ visionary emphasis on synodality, we likewise give thanks for Your witness as an instrument of dialogue, peace, and reconciliation throughout the world. Especially in this time of war and pain, particularly in the Ukraine and the Middle East, Your Holiness has shone as a tireless advocate for the cessation of conflict. We join You in these efforts, and we pray with You to our Almighty Lord that he would “guide our feet into the way of peace” (Luke 1:79). The savagery and inhumanity of our world is too much for us to bear alone. We find our solution, our redemption, as St Peter tells us, “with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:19). Our hymns address Paul at one point with these words: “Rome received your blood, and with it she makes her boast” (Matins of the Feast, Hypakoe). We boast with Rome in the blood of the martyrs, and above all these two great martyrs and Apostles, knowing that their death for Christ bears witness to and foreshadows the end of all death and all bloodshed through his wondrous and awe-inspiring economy of salvation. Part of that boast, however, is the ardent preaching of peace here and now throughout the world, of which Your Holiness is such a precious and inspiring example. 

Your Holiness, dearest Brother Francis, though absent from You “in presence, not in heart” (1 Thessalonians 2:17), we celebrate together with You on this day the Thronal Feast of the Church of Rome. We take this opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to achieving, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, the restoration of communion between us. We pray that Our Lord grant You perfect health and strength, inspiring Your every step in the exercise of Your ministry, and we look forward with eagerness and spiritual joy to our joint commemoration in 2025 of the 1,700^th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council held at Nicaea. Conveying to Your Holiness, the venerable Hierarchs and the Christ-loving faithful of Your Church, our warmest greetings, we embrace You fraternally and remain with much honour and love in our Lord Jesus Christ, “the chief cornerstone” of the household of God (cf. Ephesians 2:19–20).

At the Ecumenical Patriarchate,

on the twenty-ninth of June, 2024

Your Holiness’

beloved Brother in Christ,

✠ Bartholomew

Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome
and Ecumenical Patriarch

Ακολουθεί η προσφώνηση του Σεβ. Μητροπολίτου Γέροντος Χαλκηδόνος Εμμανουήλ, επί κεφαλής της Πατριαρχικής Αντιπροσωπείας, κατά την συνάντηση με την Α.Αγιότητα τον Πάπα Ρώμης Φραγκίσκο (28 Ιουνίου 2024)

Your Holiness, 

The world today yearns for signs of hope, unity, and reconciliation. Our Lord, God incarnate, is a tangible and visible presence responding to the uncertainty of our time. The mystery of His incarnation is the ultimate manifestation of His love for humanity. Through His Disciples, He invites us to touch His most sacred wounds and to confess Him as did Saint Thomas, “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28).

On the joyous occasion of the feast day of the Church of Rome, celebrating the divine memory of Saints Peter and Paul, I extend to Your Holiness the most heartfelt and fraternal congratulations on behalf of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. As we reflect on Holy Scripture, we contemplate the depth of Christian faith exemplified by the leader of the Apostles. Saint Peter challenges us with the paradox of human nature. He is the one who confesses Christ as God and yet denies Him three times. He walks on water but then begins to drown. He is called “the rock” but needs to carry a sword. He runs to the empty tomb, recognizes Christ on the shore, and carries the fishing net that symbolizes the world renewed by the Lord’s love, sacrifice, and resurrection. Love answers all his doubts, while the Lord asks him three times the ultimate question, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” (John 21:15).

Following the tradition established by your inspired predecessors of blessed memory, we rejoice and convey to Your Holiness the love and hope of the Sister Church of Constantinople, through the presence and participation of our Patriarchal Delegation on the Thronal feast of your Church. We thank you for your generous hospitality. Since 1964, following the first embrace of Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras in Jerusalem, the Sister Churches of Rome and Constantinople have embarked on an irreversible journey towards reconciliation and unity. Today, we continue this commitment, engaging in both a dialogue of love and a dialogue of truth. Love supports honest dialogue, appreciating commonalities and addressing theological differences within a context of trust and hope.

Over the last decade, we have engaged in a profound conversation about the primacy-synodality nexus. The international theological dialogue, established in 1979, has published significant statements in Ravenna (2007), Chieti (2016), and Alexandria (2023), exploring the evolution of Church authority in the first and second millennia. These investigations reveal how historical and political conditions have shaped the tension between primacy and synodality. Thus, we affirm that there is no primacy without synodality and no synodality without primacy as long as the model of authority remains centered on Christ’s servant leadership (Matthew 20:27).

Your Holiness’s reflection on synodality highlights the benefits of offering the Body of Christ an existence grounded in the divine mystery of Christ’s incarnation, transmitted through participation in the Holy Eucharist. Indeed, the prophetic witness of unity is inseparable from the sacramental ministry of the Church. Similarly, the reintroduction of the title “Patriarch of the West” for the papacy resonates favorably in an Orthodox context, reflecting the shared experience of Christianity before the eleventh-century schism. The document presented by the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, titled “The Bishop of Rome: Primacy and Synodality in Ecumenical Dialogues and Responses to the Encyclical Ut unum sint,” is an important reflection, summarizing the many bilateral dialogues in which the Church of Rome is engaged and highlighting the accomplishments of the last 25 years of ecumenical efforts. Unity requires courage and determination, and our commitment to dialogue reflects our submission to Christ’s commandment calling us to unity.

However, theological dialogue cannot overshadow the painful reality of a world disfigured by wars and conflicts. We pray for peace, convinced that true peace is found only in our Lord Jesus Christ. The wisdom of humanity is a divine blessing, planting in our midst the divine presence that brings reconciliation. Peace is another name for God. True peace is the presence of God among us. Our witness to God’s love in the world is to continually preach and glorify God in peace, not to use His name to justify war and conflict. During the Divine Liturgy, we pray “for the peace of the whole world.” These words are not empty; peace is a prefiguration of the Kingdom to come, a new filiation, announced by Christ: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God” (Matthew 5:9).

Your Holiness, the journey of our Churches towards reconciliation and unity is vital, not only to resolve the challenges of division but also because our common witness to the risen Lord demands unity. The world cries and suffers due to our divisions. The ministry of love entrusted to You and His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew by the Lord through His Holy Disciples calls each one of us to work towards restoring full communion between our two Sister Churches of Rome and Constantinople. While recognizing the differences that still need to be addressed and the obstacles to be overcome, let us focus on our common confession of faith, based on the conciliar experience of the Church, which we share as a common legacy. The commemoration next year of the 1700^th anniversary of the first Ecumenical Council of Nicaea will serve as a beacon of hope, an opportunity to delve into these common roots developed while our churches were still united. This anniversary will provide an additional reason to celebrate our common history, a true gift to the entire Church received in the East as well as in the West.

To confess is to proclaim, to celebrate, and to declare that the Lord has risen from the dead, bringing salvation to the world. As Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras once said: “Unity will come. It will be a miracle. A new miracle that takes place in time. When? We cannot know. But we must prepare the way because a miracle is like God and is always imminent.”

With these heartfelt sentiments, I renew the warm good wishes on behalf of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and our entire Patriarchal Delegation for the feast of Saints Peter and Paul.