Last year, on his unprecedented visit to Rome for the inaugural Mass of the newly-elected Pope, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew invited Pope Francis to a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in order to commemorate and celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the historic meeting in Jerusalem between their predecessors, Patriarch Athenagoras and Pope Paul VI in 1964.

On February 18, 2014, the Holy and Sacred Synod discussed the forthcoming meeting in May, already formally announced by the Vatican, between Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Pope Francis. The meeting will affirm the fraternal relations between the two “sister churches” and promote the cause of unity and reconciliation among the Christian Churches as well as nonviolence and peace throughout the world, especially in the Middle East.