Joint Catholic-Orthodox Declaration - Timeline Event

Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I

12-07-1965

In 1054, a cardinal and papal legate excommunicated the Patriarch of Constantinople, Michael Cerularius, who in turn excommunicated the two representatives of the Pope. This acted as a tipping point following a long period of tension between the Eastern and Western churches, which eventually led to the Great Schism.

During the Second Vatican Council in 1964, Catholic leaders and Orthodox representatives began discussing greater efforts of ecumenism between Catholic and Orthodox churches. On December 7, 1965, one day before the conclusion of Vatican II, Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I jointly promulgated a decree that lifted the mutual excommunications of 1054 and declared, "These censures were not intended to break ecclesiastical communion between the Sees of Rome and Constantinople."

This event reflected a growing desire for reconciliation between both churches and led to firmer ecumenical relations after centuries of mutual excommunication.

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In 1054, a cardinal and papal legate excommunicated the Patriarch of Constantinople, Michael Cerularius, who in turn excommunicated the two representatives of the Pope. This acted as a tipping point following a long period of tension between the Eastern and Western churches, which eventually led to the Great Schism.

During the Second Vatican Council in 1964, Catholic leaders issued the Decree on Ecumenism, Unitatis Redintegratio, which noted that reunification with the Orthodox was a primary concern of their church's participation in the ecumenical movement and which endorsed limited worship in common between members of the two churches. Orthodox representatives also had participated as observers at Vatican II, and Orthodox leaders likewise discussed the question of ecumenism with Catholics at the third Pan-Orthodox Conference at Rhodes in 1964. Other ecumenical dialogues, primarily between Protestant churches but occasionally also including Catholic and Orthodox participants, had been ongoing for some time before 1964.

On December 7, 1965, one day before the conclusion of Vatican II, Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I jointly promulgated a decree that lifted the mutual excommunications of 1054 and declared, “These censures were not intended to break ecclesiastical communion between the Sees of Rome and Constantinople.”

Following the decree, Catholic and Orthodox representatives began trying to forge firmer ecumenical relations with one another, leading to the creation of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church by Pope John Paul II and Patriarch Dimitrios I in 1979.