Joint Catholic–Orthodox Declaration of 7 December 1965
Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I7 December 1965
The declaration, read at the same hour in Rome and Istanbul, in which the pope and the ecumenical patriarch regretted the excommunications of 1054 and removed them from the memory of the Church.
The text is short and is the common statement of both sees about the Schism of 1054. It describes the sentences of 1054 as directed against persons and not against the Churches, says they were not meant to break communion between Rome and Constantinople, regrets the offensive words and gestures on both sides, and commits the excommunications to oblivion. It adds that this does not end the differences between the two Churches. See Rome and Constantinople Lift the Anathemas of 1054.
Cited in
- 16 July 1054, firm date
- 7 December 1965, firm date