Greeting on the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Opening of the Second Vatican Council

Bartholomew I spoke at the end of the anniversary Mass on 11 October 2012, addressing Benedict XVI and the bishops and people in the square. He recalls that as a student at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome he attended some sessions of the council in person. He says the council opened the Catholic Church to ecumenical encounter, and names as its results the rescinding of the excommunications of 1054, exchanges of visits, the return of relics and the theological dialogue between the two churches. He adds that the council’s main themes are hard to apply in practice and that the door must stay open for its deeper reception.

It is cited in the Second Vatican Council as an Orthodox response to the council in the words of the patriarch whom Vatican Radio’s introduction calls first among equals in the Eastern Orthodox communion.