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 Posted: Mon Nov 02, 2009 7:19 pm |
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JOINT CATHOLIC-ORTHODOX DECLARATION
OF HIS HOLINESS POPE PAUL VI
AND THE ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH ATHENAGORAS I
DECEMBER 7, 1965
Following is the text of the joint Catholic-Orthodox declaration,
approved by Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I of
Constantinople, read simultaneously (Dec. 7) at a public meeting of
the ecumenical council in Rome and at a special ceremony in Istanbul.
The declaration concerns the Catholic-Orthodox exchange of
excommunications in 1054.
1. Grateful to God, who mercifully favored them with a fraternal
meeting at those holy places where the mystery of salvation was
accomplished through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and
where the Church was born through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit,
Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I have not lost sight of the
determination each then felt to omit nothing thereafter which charity
might inspire and which could facilitate the development of the
fraternal relations thus taken up between the Roman Catholic Church
and the Orthodox Church of Constantinople. They are persuaded that in
acting this way, they are responding to the call of that divine grace
which today is leading the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox
Church, as well as all Christians, to overcome their differences in
order to be again "one" as the Lord Jesus asked of His Father for
them.
2. Among the obstacles along the road of the development of these
fraternal relations of confidence and esteem, there is the memory of
the decisions, actions and painful incidents which in 1054 resulted in
the sentence of excommunication leveled against the Patriarch Michael
Cerularius and two other persons by the legate of the Roman See under
the leadership of Cardinal Humbertus, legates who then became the
object of a similar sentence pronounced by the patriarch and the Synod
of Constantinople.
3. One cannot pretend that these events were not what they were during
this very troubled period of history. Today, however, they have been
judged more fairly and serenely. Thus it is important to recognize the
excesses which accompanied them and later led to consequences which,
insofar as we can judge, went much further than their authors had
intended and foreseen. They had directed their censures against the
persons concerned and not the Churches. These censures were not
intended to break ecclesiastical communion between the Sees of Rome
and Constantinople.
4. Since they are certain that they express the common desire for
justice and the unanimous sentiment of charity which moves the
faithful, and since they recall the command of the Lord: "If you are
offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brethren
has something against you, leave your gift before the altar and go
first be reconciled to your brother" (Matt. 5:23-24), Pope Paul VI and
Patriarch Athenagoras I with his synod, in common agreement, declare
that:
A. They regret the offensive words, the reproaches without foundation,
and the reprehensible gestures which, on both sides, have marked or
accompanied the sad events of this period.
B. They likewise regret and remove both from memory and from the midst
of the Church the sentences of excommunication which followed these
events, the memory of which has influenced actions up to our day and
has hindered closer relations in charity; and they commit these
excommunications to oblivion.
C. Finally, they deplore the preceding and later vexing events which,
under the influence of various factors—among which, lack of
understanding and mutual trust—eventually led to the effective rupture
of ecclesiastical communion.
5. Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I with his synod realize
that this gesture of justice and mutual pardon is not sufficient to
end both old and more recent differences between the Roman Catholic
Church and the Orthodox Church.
Through the action of the Holy Spirit those differences will be
overcome through cleansing of hearts, through regret for historical
wrongs, and through an efficacious determination to arrive at a common
understanding and expression of the faith of the Apostles and its
demands.
They hope, nevertheless, that this act will be pleasing to God, who is
prompt to pardon us when we pardon each other. They hope that the
whole Christian world, especially the entire Roman Catholic Church and
the Orthodox Church will appreciate this gesture as an expression of a
sincere desire shared in common for reconciliation, and as an
invitation to follow out in a spirit of trust, esteem and mutual
charity the dialogue which, with Gods help, will lead to living
together again, for the greater good of souls and the coming of the
kingdom of God, in that full communion of faith, fraternal accord and
sacramental life which existed among them during the first thousand
years of the life of the Church.
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