From the revocation of anathema in Nicaea, 17 centuries after the first Ecumenical Synod

On the day of Pope Leo XIV's arrival in Turkey, AsiaNews publishes a reflection by Metropolitan Job. The theological dialogue between Orthodox and Catholics does not seek compromise. On the contrary, it produces fruits and agreements on the path towards visible Christian unity. The common condemnation of Uniatism as a method and the interdependence of primacy and synodality.

Istanbul (AsiaNews) - Below we publish a reflection by the Metropolitan of Pisidia and co-president of the dialogue between Catholics and Orthodox Christians, on the day Pope Leo XIV begins his first apostolic journey abroad, visiting Turkey and Lebanon from 27 November to 2 December. From interreligious dialogue to ecumenism, from the wars in the Middle East to the 1700 years since the Council of Nicaea, there are many topics he will touch on in his eight official speeches. Translation of the text for AsiaNews by Nikos Tsoitis, analyst and scholar of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople:

After the revocation of the mutual excommunications of 1054 at the end of the Second Vatican Council, on 7 December 1965, during a ceremony held simultaneously in Rome and Constantinople, the two Churches of Rome and Constantinople found themselves in a situation similar to that in which they had been at the beginning of the 11th century: in a state of troubled communion, of excommunication. To remedy this problem, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras had previously initiated a dialogue of love during their historic and prophetic meeting in Jerusalem in January 1964.

This dialogue of love aimed to lead to a dialogue of truth through the creation, in 1979, of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, on an equal footing, following the mutual agreement between Pope John Paul II and Ecumenical Patriarch Demetrius. The purpose of this commission, from the outset, was very clear: the restoration of full communion between these two Churches, based on the unity of faith according to the common experience and tradition of the early Church, the common tradition of the first millennium, as can be read in the commission's plan drawn up in Rhodes in 1980.

What is the situation forty-five years later? Of course, there are still many sceptics who constantly repeat: ‘What is the point of dialogue with the Latins, whom our fathers in the faith - such as St Mark of Ephesus or St Cosmas the Aetolian - condemned...’, without realising that the situation in which the Roman Catholic Church finds itself after the Second Vatican Council is not the same as when these saints lived. Indeed, during this Council, the Roman Catholic Church underwent a veritable “Copernican revolution”, a revolution stimulated by the rediscovery of the tradition of the early Church Fathers and by an opening towards the Christian East.

Of course, there will always be those who doubt the sincerity of the dialogue and suspect that it is simply a ploy orchestrated by the astute Latins to draw the Orthodox Church into the arms of Rome. Indeed, the resurgence of the so-called ‘Uniates’ after the fall of the communist regime in the late 1980s led to a cooling of dialogue, caused by fears of a return to Uniatism. Nevertheless, the Joint International Commission has clearly stated on two occasions, in Freising in 1990 and in Balamand in 1993, that the method called ‘Uniatism’ is rejected as a method for seeking unity ‘because it is contrary to the common tradition of our Churches’.

‘The theological dialogue that the Orthodox Church conducts with the Roman Catholic Church, as well as with the rest of the Christian world, in no way seeks to reach a compromise or to betray Orthodoxy.’

Nevertheless, for over forty-five years, the Joint International Commission has worked tirelessly, without allowing itself to be influenced or distracted. And today we are able to reap some fruits. After beginning by examining what the two Churches have in common – namely, a common understanding of the mysteries of the Church and a common understanding of the sacramental nature of the Church – the Commission was then able to examine the question of synodality and primacy. The genius of the 2007 Ravenna document lies precisely in having emphasised that the thorny question of Roman primacy could not be separated from the question of synodality, because primacy and synodality are interdependent. In fact, no one can be first without the others, and there can be no assembly or council without a presidency. And the Ravenna document clarified that this applies at three levels of ecclesial experience: at the local level of the province, at the regional level of the episcopal synod, and at the global level, in the communion of patriarchal and autocephalous Churches.

Subsequently, the 2016 Chieti document explored the issue further by examining more closely the common tradition of the first millennium, considered canonical for both Churches. More recently, the 2023 Alexandria document studied the transitions of ecclesiastical administration in the East and West during the second millennium, concluding that: ‘The Church is not properly understood as a pyramid, with a primate ruling from above, but neither is it properly understood as a federation of self-sufficient Churches.’

‘Certainly, there will always be those who doubt the sincerity of dialogue and suspect that it is simply a ploy orchestrated by the cunning Latins to draw the Orthodox Church into the arms of Rome.’

Personally, I am convinced that the work of the Joint International Commission has inspired a renewal of synodality within the Roman Catholic Church in recent years, during the pontificate of Pope Francis: a renewal that inspires a certain ‘decentralisation’ of the Roman Catholic Church, thus challenging the so-called ‘universal jurisdiction’ of the Pope, and which, in this sense, appears promising to attentive Orthodox Christians.

At this point, Pope Leo XIV seems to want to continue along this path. Having made progress in the dialogue on truth, the commission seems ready, at this point in history, to address and discuss, in a climate of academic objectivity and mutual trust, the issues that have long divided the Churches. The issues of papal infallibility and the Filioque clause are now on the agenda.

Regarding the latter issue, it is worth recalling that the 2003 document of the North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation entitled: "The Filioque: A Question Dividing the Church? An Agreed Statement‘ recommended that the Roman Catholic Church use ’only the original Greek text to make translations of the Creed (of Nicaea) for catechetical and liturgical use," i.e., without the Filioque.

In this regard, a very recent event gives us particular joy: during the ‘ecumenical feast of the memory of the martyrs of the faith of the 21st century’, presided over by His Holiness Pope Leo XIV, in the Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls in Rome on 14 September 2025, the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed was recited in Latin without the Filioque! This is an important detail that shows that things are moving forward and that dialogue is bearing fruit.

The theological dialogue that the Orthodox Church is conducting with the Roman Catholic Church, as well as with the rest of the Christian world, in no way seeks to reach a compromise or betray Orthodoxy, but, on the contrary, has already produced many important agreements and has borne significant fruit in recent decades, and is leading us on the path towards the visible unity of Christians.

* Metropolitan of Pisidia and Co-Chair of the Catholic-Orthodox Dialogue