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Pope Francis’ address to His Holiness Mar Awa iii,
Catholicos Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East,
and to the Joint Commission for Theological Dialogue
between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East
Saturday, 9 November 2024
Patriarch Mar Awa III is in Rome to celebrate 30 years of the
Christological Declaration between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church
John Zizioulas, a Greek Orthodox bishop said: “I know the date of unity”.
Pope Francis asked: When is it? “The day after the Last Judgement”.
Your Holiness, Dear Sister, Dear Brothers in Christ,
“The Lord of the ages … in recent times … has begun to give more generously to divided Christians the repentance for their divisions and the desire for unity” (Unitatis Redintegratio, 1).
I am reminded of what the great Zizioulas, a man of God, used to say: “I know the date of unity”.
When is it? “The day after the Last Judgement”.
Until then there will be no unity, but in the meantime we must walk together, pray together and work together. That is what we are doing now.
Forty years ago, Pope St. John Paul II greeted His Holiness Mar Dinkha IV, on the occasion of the first official meeting between a Bishop of Rome and a Catholicos Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, as Your Holiness has just recalled. “Slowly and one-step at a time”.
Those words were drawn from the Second Vatican Council’s Decree on Ecumenism Unitatis Redintegratio, whose 60th anniversary the Catholic Church celebrates this month.
It was the “longing for unity”, mentioned several times in that Decree (cf. Unitatis Redintegratio, 7), that prompted our Predecessors to meet. This “desiderium unitatis” (i.e. longing for unity), in the fine phrase of St John Cassian (Collationes, 23, 5), is a grace that inspired the ecumenical movement from its origins and one that we must constantly cultivate. Awakened by the Holy Spirit, it is none other than Christ’s own ardent desire, expressed on the eve of his Passion, “that they may all be one” (Jn 17:21).
Your Holiness, dear Brother, it is precisely this same “longing for unity” that we experience today as we commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the Common Christological Declaration between our Churches, which ended 1500 years of doctrinal controversy regarding the Council of Ephesus.
This historic declaration recognised the legitimacy and accuracy of the various expressions of our common Christological faith as formulated by the Fathers in the Nicene Creed.
This “hermeneutical” approach was made possible thanks to a fundamental principle affirmed by the conciliar decree, namely that the same faith, handed down by the Apostles, was expressed and accepted in different forms and ways according to different conditions of life (cf. Unitatis Redintegratio, 14).
This is a very important principle.
The Common Christological Declaration announced the creation of a Joint Commission for Theological Dialogue between our Churches, which has borne remarkable fruit, also at the pastoral level.
I would like to mention in particular the 2001 agreement on the Anaphora of the Apostles Addai and Mari, which allowed our respective faithful a certain communicatio in sacris in certaincircumstances, and, in 2017, a joint statement on “Sacramental Life”.
More recently, two years ago, a document on The Images of the Church in the Syriac and Latin Patristic Traditions laid the foundation for a common understanding of the Church’s constitution.
Today, then, I have the opportunity to thank all of you, the theologian members of the Joint Commission, for your hard work.
Indeed, without your work these doctrinal and pastoral agreements would not have been possible.
I look forward to the publication of a commemorative volume containing the various documents marking the stages of our journey towards full communion, with a joint preface by Your Holiness and myself.
Theological dialogue is indispensable in our journey towards unity, since the desire is unity in faith, while the dialogue of truth can never be separated from the dialogue of love and the dialogue of life.
In this way, it is a complete and human dialogue.
This unity in faith has already been achieved by the saints of our churches.
They are our best guides on the way to full communion.
Therefore, with the agreement of Your Holiness and the Patriarch of the Chaldean Church, and encouraged by the recent Synod of the Catholic Church on Synodality, which stated that the example of the saints of other Churches is “a gift that we can accept by including their commemoration in our liturgical calendar” (Final Document, No. 122), I am pleased to announce that the great Isaac of Nineveh, one of the most venerated Fathers of the Syro-Oriental tradition, recognized by all traditions as a teacher and a saint, will be included in the Roman Martyrology.
Through the intercession of St. Isaac of Nineveh, united to that of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Christ, our God and Savior, may the Christians of the Middle East always bear witness to the Risen Christ in these war-torn lands.
And may the friendship between our Churches continue to flourish, until the blessed day when we can celebrate together at the same altar and receive the communion of the same Body and Blood of the Savior, “so that the world may believe” (Jn 17:21)!
Thank you, Your Holiness!
Let us continue to walk, pray and work together, and let us continue on this path towards full unity. Thanks to all of you for this visit. Let us remain always united in prayer for one another.
Now, I invite everyone to pray together the prayer that the Lord Jesus taught us, the Our Father.
Let each one pray it according to his or her own tradition and language, in a low voice.
