Pope Francis said on Thursday that he is seeking “unity in diversity” with the Orthodox Church.
He expressed his hope that the young generation of Catholics and Orthodox Christians will be able to acknowledge one another “as brothers and sisters, united in diversity and capable of bearing witness to the love of Christ, especially in a world so divided and riven by conflict.”
His comments were made during his meeting in the Vatican with the Metropolitan Agathanghelos, Director General of the Apostoliki Diakonia of the Church of Greece, and a Delegation of the Theological College of Athens.
“It is the young, sustained by the hope founded on faith, who can break the bonds of antagonism, misunderstanding and prejudice that for centuries held Catholics and Orthodox back from acknowledging one another as brothers and sisters,” the Pope said.
Pope Francis welcomed the Director General and the Delegation from the Theological College of Athens and thanked them for “two decades of cooperation between the Apostolikí Diakonía of the Church of Greece and the Catholic Committee for Cultural Collaboration of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity.”
The Holy Father turned his thoughts, “with fraternal affection to the Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, His Beatitude Ieronymos,” and acknowledged that he is “a man of deep faith and a wise pastor.”
Pope Francis thanked for the support that the Archbishop of Athens has given and continues to give to the “activities jointly promoted by the Apostolikí Diakonía and the Catholic Committee for Cultural Collaboration.
”He remembered the good work that the Apostolikí Diakonía and the Catholic Committee for Cultural Collaboration had done together during the economic crisis in Greece and during the Pandemic. And he expressed his joy over the “decision to give priority to the cultural, theological and ecumenical formation of coming generations.”
Pope Francis seeks closer ties with the Orthodox
In 2021, Francis visited Greece and Cyprus seeking to improve historically difficult relations between the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Churches.
Francis visited the island of Lesvos in 2016 but his trip to Athens, which included a mass and meetings with Greece’s top cleric, Archbishop Ieronymos, was the first to the Greek capital by a pope since John Paul II came in May 2001.
The Orthodox Church has been separated from the Catholic Church since the schism of 1054 between Rome and Constantinople, today’s Istanbul which was then the capital of the Byzantine Empire.
In 2014 Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Francis crossed a fifty-year milestone, continuing the legacy of their predecessors Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras. In 1964, those leaders broke a silence of centuries and paved the way toward greater dialogue.
Related: Catholic Church vs. Orthodox Church: The Main Differences