Acta Apostolicae Sedis - Commentarium Officiale416

VII

Ad delegationem Patriarchatus Oecumenici Constantinopolitani.*

Dear Brothers in Christ,

"Grace to you and peace from God our Father".1 With great joy and

heartfelt affection I welcome you in the Lord to this City of Rome, on the

occasion of the annual celebration of the martyrdom of Saints Peter and

Paul. Their feast, which the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches

celebrate on the same day, is one of the most ancient of the liturgical year,

and it testifies to a time when our communities were living in full communion

with one another. Your presence here today - for which I am deeply grateful

to the Patriarch of Constantinople, His Holiness Bartholomaios I, and to the

Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate - brings great gladness to the

hearts of us all.

I thank the Lord that the relations between us are characterized by

sentiments of mutual trust, esteem and fraternity, as is amply testified by

the many meetings that have already taken place in the course of this year.

All this gives grounds for hope that Catholic-Orthodox dialogue will also

continue to make significant progress. Your Eminence is aware that the Joint

International Commission for Theological Dialogue, of which you are Joint

Secretary, is at a crucial point, having begun last October in Paphos to

discuss the "The Role of the Bishop of Rome in the Communion of the

Church in the First Millennium". With all our hearts we pray that,

enlightened by the Holy Spirit, the Members of the Commission will

continue along this path during the forthcoming plenary session in Vienna,

and devote to it the time needed for thorough study of this delicate and

important issue. For me it is an encouraging sign that Ecumenical

Patriarch Bartholomaios I and the Holy Synod of Constantinople share

our firm conviction of the importance of this dialogue, as His Holiness

stated so clearly in the Patriarchal and Synodal Encyclical Letter on the

occasion of Orthodoxy Sunday on 21 February 2010.

In the forthcoming Special Assembly for the Middle East of the Synod of

Bishops, which I have convoked for the month of October here in Rome, I am

* Die 28 Iunii 2010. 1 Col 1:2.