Fr Hyacinthe Destivelle, from the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, talks about prospects for the new phase of relationships between Moscow and the Holy See While Churches in the West prepare to celebrate the Epiphany this Sunday, Christians in much of the Eastern Orthodox world, which follows the ancient Julian calendar, are gearing up for their [...]
Pope Francis has sent a message to the head of the Bose monastic community to mark the opening of their 25th international ecumenical conference on Orthodox spirituality. The Bose community, based in northern Italy, was founded in December 1965 on the day that the Second Vatican Council concluded its work. It currently numbers around 80 members, men and women [...]
Pope Francis met on Tuesday with members of an Orthodox delegation from the Ecumenical Patriarchate who are here in Rome to celebrate the feast of Saints Peter and Paul. In his greeting, the Pope noted that this year marks the 50th anniversary of the first exchange of visits between a Roman pontiff and an Ecumenical Patriarch. [...]
September 18, 2016, Sunday -- The Face of Christ and Unity "Seeking the Face of Jesus must be the longing of all of us Christians... If we persevere in our quest for the Face of the Lord, at the end of our earthly pilgrimage, he, Jesus, will be our eternal joy, our reward and glory for [...]
August 29, 2016, Monday -- Rome-Moscow Exchange Intensifies "May the Holy Mother of God, our common heavenly Mother, keep all of us and cover us from all evil.'" —Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev, head of the Department of External Relations of the Russian Orthodox Patriarchate of Moscow, speaking to a dozen visitors from Rome, his guests for two [...]
Cardinal Kurt Koch Pope Benedict has chosen a quiet, thoughtful, relatively young Swiss theologian to head the Holy See’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews. (Born as the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity under Pope John XXIII in 1960 the dicastery was given its [...]