Bilateral Dialogues: Phanar, July 1967
Paul VI – Athenagoras
Address of Pope Paul VI. to Patriarch Athenagoras I. in St. George of the Phanar
July 7, 1967
Beloved Brother in Christ,
A little more than three years ago, God, in His Infinite goodness, permitted us to meet in that holy land where Christ founded His Church and poured out His blood for her. Both of us had journeyed in pilgrimage toward that spot on which rose the glorious cross of our Saviour and from where, "lifted up from the earth, He draws all things to Himself" (John 12, 32).
Today it is the same love of Christ and His Church which brings us, a pilgrim once again, to this noble land where the successors of the Apostles once assembled in the Holy Spirit to bear witness to the faith of the Church. We recall here the four great ecumenical councils of Nicaea, Constantinople, Ephesus and Chalcedon, which the Fathers had no hesitation in likening to the four Gospels. These were their first meetings, and they came from the entire Christian world oft hat time. Inspired by the same brotherly love, they provided our faith with a richness and depth of expression which even in our day nourishes the faith and loving contemplation of all Christians.
Can we not see the working of Divine Providence in the fact that this pilgrimage affords us the opportunity of fulfilling the hope of meeting again, which we both expressed in Jerusalem after Your Holiness had told us that," having sought to meet with one another, together we had found the Lord?"
Is not the secret of out meeting, of the gradual rediscovery of our churches, that unceasing search for Christ and for fidelity to Christ, who unites us in Himself? At the beginning of this year in which we celebrate the igth centenary of the supreme testimony given to the faith by the Apostles Peter and Paul, we meet once again to exchange the kiss of brotherly love, here where our fathers in the faith assembled to profess with one accord their belief in the Holy Trinity, indivisible and consubstantial.
In the light of our love for Christ and of our brotherly love, we perceive even more clearly the profound identity of our faith, and the points on which we still differ must not prevent us from seeing this profound unity. And here, too, charity must come to our aid, as it helped Hilary and Athanasius to recognize the sameness of the faith underlying the differences of vocabulary at a time when serious disagreements were creating divisions among Christian bishops. Did not pastoral love prompt St. Basil, in his defense of the true faith in the Holy Spirit, to refrain from using certain terms which, accurate though they were, could have given rise to scandal in one part of the Christian people? And did not St. Cyril of Alexandria consent in 433 to abandon his beautiful formulation of theology in the interests of making peace with John of Antioch, once he had satisfied himself that in spite of divergent modes of expression, their faith was identical.
Is this not a field in which the dialogue of charity can be profitably extended, eliminating many obstacles and and opening up paths to the full communion of faith in truth? To find ourselves again one in diversity and fidelity can only be the work of the Spirit of Love. While unity of faith is required for full communion, diversity of usages is not an obstacle to it — on the contrary.
Did not Saint Irenaeus, who "bore his name well, since he was a pacifier both in name and by his actions" (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, 5, 14, 24), say that diversity of usages "confirms the accord of faith" (ibid. 13)? And as the great doctor of the African Church, Augustine, looked upon diversity of usage as one of the reasons for the beauty of the Church_of Christ (Epistle 14, number 32).
Charity enables us to acquire a better awareness of the very depth of our unity at the same time it makes us suffer more painfully the present impossibility of seeing this unity expand into concelebration, and it spurs us on to do everything possible to hasten the advent of that day of the Lord. Thus we see more clearly that it is incumbent on the heads of the Churches, on their hierarchy, to lead the Churches along the path which leads to the rediscovery of full communion. They must do it by mutual recognition of each other and mutual respect for each other as pastors of that part of the flock of Christ which is entrusted to them, providing for the cohesion and growth of the people of God and avoiding all that could disperse it and throw confusion into its ranks. From now on then, and through such efforts we will be able to render more efficacious testimony to the name of Christ, who wanted us to be one so that the world might believe.
Charity is the vitally necessary environment for the flowering of faith, and communion in faith is the condition for the full manifestation of that charity which is expressed in concelebration.
May the Lord, who for the second time gives us the opportunity for exchanging the kiss of His love, illumine us and guide our steps and our efforts toward that day so much desired. May He grant that we be ever more completely animated by concern for the faithful fulfillment of His will for the Church! May He grant us a vivid sense of that one thing necessary to which all else must be subordinated or sacrificed. It is in this hope that, with "love without pretence" (Romans 12, 9) we greet you with a holy kiss (Romans 16, 16).
Address of Patriarch Athenagoras I. to Pope Paul VI. in St. George of the Phanar
July 7, 1967
Your Holiness and well beloved brother in Christ,
Glory to God the author of every marvel, who has deemed us worthy today, us and the hierarchy, the clergy and the people around us, linked in our prayer with our holy brothers, the chiets of the local Orthodox churches and the venerated brothers of the other Christian churches, to receive with boundless love and very great honour Your Holiness, dear and venerated, you who have come here to bring the kiss of ancient Rome to its younger sister.
Be welcome, very holy successor of Petet, who have come here to bring the kiss of ancient Rome to its younger sister.
Be welcome, very holy successor of Peter, who have Paul's name and his conduct, as a messenger of charity, union and peace.
Within the bosom of the Church we give you the kiss of the lave of Christ.
The Apostles Peter and Andrew, who were brothers, are glad with us, and in their joy are joined the choir of the holy Fathers of the setting sun and of the rising sun, of north and of south, who consumed themselves in the witness of the undivided Church's common faith and in the sanctification of their concelebration in its bosom, as well as with all those generations who have aspired to see this day.
We thank you for this great gesture on behalf of our dear country and of our Church.
Very holy brother,
Descending in peace from the Mount of Olives as from a first degree of conciliation, and taking the road toward Emmaus, walking along with the risen Lord and longing for the breaking of the bread, we have pursued our road until today, carrying on a dialogue in charity. Our hearts were burning and the Lord has not left us.
According to his truthful words, " Behold, I am with you" (Matthew 28, 2o) He has led us stage by stage and has confronted us with the unhappy signs of our common history. He has ordered us to raise from between us, from the midst of the Church and from its very memory, the curtain of separation. That is what we have done as far as our weakness allowed.
But He who gives far beyond whatever we can conceive, our common and only Lord, has blessed and increased the measure of His gifts to His Church and to us ourselves. And see how, contrary to every human expec-tation, we have among us the Bishop of Rome, the first in honour amongus, "he who presides in charity" (Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle to the Romans, preface, Greek Fathers 5, 801).
And here are both of us, facing our common and holy responsibility toward the Church and the world.
Henceforth, whither and how will we continue along our route?
Both the goal and the paths that lead to it are in the hands of God. But it is not T, it is the Lord who says
"may all be one" (John 17, 2r).
Obedient to His words and to His will, we are moving toward the union of all, toward the full communion of charity and of faith, coming to pass in the concelebration of the common chalice of Christ, in the impatient expectation and the hope of Him who will come to consummate the times and history in judging the living and the dead.
How will we pursue our road?
According to us, in the disposition of the conscience and of the will of all Catholics and Orthodox, marked on both parts by manifestations of the hierarchy, of the clergy and of the faithful, whose voice in these times is a precious guide and a consolation.
In thus pursuing our road, we humbly believe we are replying to the exigencies -- unavoidable at the present hour of a history of which God remains the master.
Called to be servants of the Lord of His Church and of the whole world, let us collaborate then in the design of God, who leaves the go sheep to save the one of them who strayed (Matthew 18, tr) and toward whom we are held to a common care and a common witness.
However, let us begin with ourselves. Let us make every possible sacrifice and supress mutually, with a total negation, all that in the past seemed to contribute to the Church's integrity but which in reality ended by creating a division difficult to surmount. Let us build the Body of Christ in reuniting what is divided and in bringing together again what is scattered (Liturgy of St, Basil).
Let us then apply ourselves, by reciprocal gestures of the Churches, where it is possible, to reuniting what is di-vided, in the firm recognition of the common points of the Faith and of canonical regulations. Let us thus conduct the theological dialogue according to the principle of the full community of what is fundamental for the Faith and for the liberty of a theological, spiritual and creative thought, inspired by the common Fathers, in the diversity of local usage admitted by the Church from its beginnings.
So doing, we will have in view not only the unity of our two holy Churches but also a higher service: to offer ourselves together to all other dear Christian brothers as examples and artisans in the accomplishment of the whole will of the Lord, which is to reach the union of all so that the world may believe that Christ was sent by God.
But there is more. We have in view all those who believe in a God, Creator of man and of the universe, and, in collaborating with them, we will serve all men without distinction of race, creed or opinion, to promote the good of peace in the world and to establish the kingdom of God on earth.
Full of such sentiments and of such thoughts, we salute Your Holiness' arrival in the East as a new dawn of Rome and of Constantinople, of the Roman Catholic world and the Orthodox world, of all Christianity and of the whole of mankind.
May you be blessed, brother, who have came in the name of the Lord.