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Photo: Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I embrace.
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During his speech following the celebration of the Liturgy on the feast day of Saint Andrew the Apostle, Patriarch Bartholomew underlined the deeper meaning of every divine liturgy, which brings into communion heaven and earth, eternity and all time, past, present and future. The Holy Liturgy is the sacramental revelation of the entire truth of our faith and the place of total communion in the body of Christ.
Subsequently, His all holiness expressed his sadness over the fact that the Orthodox and Roman Catholics could not commonly conduct divine services, as well as his wish that the day will soon come for full Communion.
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VATICAN CITY, DEC 14, 2006 (VIS) - This morning in the Vatican, following their private meeting and after each had pronounced a public address, the Pope and His Beatitude Christodoulos, archbishop of Athens and of all Greece, signed a Joint Declaration in the presence of members of the archbishop's Greek delegation and of Catholic representatives.
"We, Benedict XVI, Pope and Bishop of Rome, and Christodoulos, Archbishop of Athens and of all Greece, in this sacred place of Rome, ... wish to live ever more intensely our mission to bear apostolic witness, to transmit the faith, ... and to announce the Good News of the birth of the Lord. ... It is also our joint responsibility to overcome, in love and truth, the multiple difficulties and painful experiences of the past."
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VATICAN CITY, DEC 14, 2006 (VIS) - This morning, the Holy Father received His Beatitude Christodoulos, archbishop of Athens and of all Greece, who is making an official visit to the Vatican. Prior to his audience with the Pope, the archbishop visited St. Peter's Basilica where he prayed at the tomb of John Paul II.
In his address, the Holy Father recalled how "following the advent of Christianity, Greece and Rome intensified their relations" and how "this gave rise to very different forms of Christian communities and traditions in the regions of the world that today correspond to Eastern Europe and Western Europe. These intense relations helped to create a kind of osmosis in the formation of ecclesial institutions. And this osmosis - in safeguarding the disciplinary, liturgical, theological and spiritual peculiarities of the Roman and Greek traditions - made the Church's evangelizing activity and the inculturation of the Christian faith fruitful."
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1. The filial meeting of the two Church leaders renews their commitment to work towards the restoration of Full Communion between the two Churches, which is God’s will and command.
2. The two Prelates recalled with gratitude their predecessors, Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II, as well as Ecumenical Patriarchs Athenagoras and Dimitrios, who lead the path towards the reconciliation (abatement) of the two churches, through their meetings and mutual visits, as well as the lifting of the 11th Century anathemas between Rome and Constantinople. They call on (implore) the faithful of both Churches to strengthen their prayers and endeavors towards the unity of the Churches.
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ISTANBUL, Turkey -- In a momentous gesture of filial love and respect for their respective churches, Pope Benedict XVI and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the first Bishop of the entire Orthodox Church worldwide, signed a significant Common Declaration.
The two Prelates recalled with gratitude their predecessors, Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II, as well as Ecumenical Patriarchs Athenagoras and Dimitrios, who lead the path towards the reconciliation (abatement) of the two churches, through their meetings and mutual visits, as well as the lifting of the 11th century anathemas between Rome and Constantinople. They call on (implore) the faithful of both Churches to strengthen their prayers and endeavors towards the unity of the Churches.
The signing of the declaration by the two “peacemakers” and "bridge builders" of Apostolic Christendom in the Throne Room of the Ecumenical Patriarchate is the focal point of Pope Benedict XVI's three-day visit to the primary ecclesiastical center of the Orthodox Christian Church.
The declaration was signed on the occasion of the feast day of St. Andrew the Apostle, who traveled across Asia Minor and is the founder of the Christian Church in present-day Istanbul, which later became the first ecclesiastical Throne in the Christian East.
Both hierarchs are noted throughout the world for their efforts to create bridges of truth and love across religious, ethnic, environmental, and political divides. The document is considered a powerful symbol of ecclesiastical solidarity.
The signing of the mutual statement continues a tradition which began in 1964 when Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras met in Jerusalem and later in Istanbul and Rome for the purpose of deepening the renewed relationship between the Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Churches.
The three-day meeting between Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Pope Benedict XVI follows a recent meeting of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the two churches last September.
Following the celebration of the Liturgy, the Pope and his entourage sat at the formal luncheon in the headquarters (the Patriarchal House) of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
(Note: For more information, please log on to www.patriarchate.org)
Thursday, November 30, 2006
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ISTANBUL, Turkey -- Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Pope Benedict XVI walked alongside each other amid the sound of church bells after a day of worship, ecumenical dialogue, and fraternal embrace.
In a mutual statement of ecclesiastical solidarity, the two Church leaders renewed their commitment to work towards the restoration of Full Communion between the two Churches.
His All Holiness, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew’s gift to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI was an ancient book of the Gospels (the first four books of the New Testament).