On Sunday, 7 December 2025, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew presided at the Divine Liturgy in the Most Venerable Patriarchal Church, during which a Doxology was offered marking the 60th anniversary of the lifting of the 1054 Anathemas by the late Pope Paul VI of Rome and the late Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras on 7 December 1965.
Concelebrating with the Patriarch were the Metropolitans Emmanuel of Chalcedon, Apostolos of Derkoi, Dimitrios of the Princes’ Islands, Meliton of Philadelphia, Irenaios of Myriophyton and Peristasis, Theoliptos of Ikonion, Stefanos of Kallioupolis and Madytos, Athenagoras of Kydonies, Maximos of Selyvria, Ierotheos of Lemnos and Agios Efstratios, Ioakeim of Bursa, and Theodoros of Seleucia.
In his address, the Ecumenical Patriarch reflected on the recent official visit of Pope Leo XIV to the Phanar and their joint pilgrimage to Nicaea, marking the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of 325. He continued:
“In the same spirit, we gather again today to honor and celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the mutual lifting of the 1054 anathemas by the late Pope Paul VI and the late Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras on 7 December 1965.
In a period of increasing polarization throughout the world—including within the Christian oikoumene—this prophetic step toward unity deserves particular attention. In their Common Declaration, they extended a decisive and sincere invitation to a new way of relating between our Sister Churches—not through ‘offensive words, unfounded accusations, and condemnable gestures,’ but through ‘the purification of hearts, the rejection of historical wrongs, and the determined will to reach a common understanding of and expression of the apostolic faith.’”
Patriarch Bartholomew stressed that the lifting of the anathemas was a tangible sign of a new beginning and provided crucial momentum for the dialogue of love, later joined by the necessary dialogue of truth through the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue.
At another point in his homily, he paid tribute to the late Metropolitan John (Zizioulas) of Pergamon, a towering theologian and principal architect of the theological dialogue.
“He deeply understood the urgent need for mutual respect and rediscovery of one another: ‘East, where is your West?’ he wrote. ‘West, where is your East?’”
Patriarch Bartholomew lamented the growing indifference toward the work of unity, noting tendencies toward self-isolation, suspicion, and mistrust:
“We must not abandon the goal of unity under the pressures of complacency or the temptations of fanaticism. As Metropolitan John wrote, letting the path become overgrown with thorns would mean a return to an alienated past. Let us instead cultivate respect, honor, and above all mutual love, so that every encounter may become an exchange of spiritual gifts and a step toward unity.”
The Patriarch also recalled that on the 10th anniversary of the lifting of the anathemas, on 7 December 1975, Pope Paul VI made an unexpected gesture of profound symbolic significance: he knelt and kissed the feet of the head of the Patriarchal delegation to the Vatican, the late Metropolitan Meliton of Chalcedon. Deeply moved, the Metropolitan later remarked that “only a great man—or a saint—could make such a gesture.”
The commemoration concluded with a renewed call for steadfast commitment to dialogue, reconciliation, and the journey toward the restoration of full Christian unity.
