Athenagoras I
Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople who met Pope Paul VI in Jerusalem in 1964 and, with his synod, joined him in 1965 in removing the excommunications of 1054 from the memory of the church.
Athenagoras I was Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople when he met Pope Paul VI in Jerusalem in January 1964, acting, as their communiqué says, with the agreement of his synod (Paul VI and Athenagoras I, Joint Communiqué (6 January 1964), paragraphs 1–2). On 7 December 1965 he and his synod declared with the pope that they regretted the excommunications of 1054 and removed them from memory and from the midst of the church (Joint Catholic–Orthodox Declaration (1965) 4), while saying that this did not end the differences between the Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches (Joint Catholic–Orthodox Declaration (1965) 5); see Rome and Constantinople Lift the Anathemas of 1054.
In October 1967 he visited the pope in Rome. Their declaration on that occasion speaks of the two churches as sister churches and of obstacles still to be overcome before full communion (Paul VI and Athenagoras I, Common Declaration (28 October 1967), paragraphs 1–2).
In the timeline
- 7 December 1965, firm dateRome and Constantinople Lift the Anathemas of 1054
On 7 December 1965 Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I declare together that they regret the excommunications exchanged in 1054 and remove them from the memory of the church. The act does not restore communion between the two churches.