Ambulate in Dilectione
The apostolic brief of 7 December 1965 in which Pope Paul VI, before the bishops of the Second Vatican Council, removed from the memory of the church the excommunication pronounced at Constantinople in 1054.
The brief takes its name from Ephesians 5:2, “Walk in love”. It is the pope’s own act, issued on the day the joint declaration with Patriarch Athenagoras was read (see Joint Catholic–Orthodox Declaration of 7 December 1965). Paul VI recalls that in 1054 the papal legates pronounced a sentence of excommunication against Michael Cerularius, patriarch of Constantinople, and two other churchmen, and that the patriarch and his synod did the same to them. He declares before the bishops gathered in council that he regrets the words and deeds of that time which cannot be approved, and that he wishes to remove the sentence of excommunication from the memory and the midst of the church and to have it buried in oblivion.
He adds that he does this at Rome, by the tomb of the apostle Peter, on the same day on which the same is done at Constantinople, the feast of Ambrose, a bishop and teacher honoured by East and West alike. The brief speaks of the sentence of excommunication and says nothing of restoring communion. See Rome and Constantinople Lift the Anathemas of 1054.
Cited in
- 7 December 1965, firm date