Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican Media
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – Thirty years ago, John Paul II, Bishop of Rome and Pope of the Catholic Church, and His Holiness Mar Dinkha IV, Catholicos-Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, signed the common Christological Declaration between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church.
What happened three decades ago represents a fundamental step towards reconciliation and full unity of both Churches, which will meet again on Saturday, November 9 to commemorate the publication of the document, which took place on November 11, 1994.
In fact, according to the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, in the next few hours, Pope Francis will meet with His Holiness Mar Awa III, Catholicos Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, who arrived in Rome in the last few hours to also participate in an “Academic Act” on the Christological Declaration at the Angelicum, in which, among others, Cardinal Kurt Koch, Bishop Antoine Audo, Metropolitan Mar Meelis Zaia and Bishop Johan Bonny participated - precisely to celebrate the three decades of the document and the fortieth anniversary of the first visit of an Assyrian Patriarch to Rome. Before 1984, no Assyrian Patriarch had ever entered the Vatican.
In these forty years of history, steps have been taken towards the reunification of the Churches. Following the meetings and the Christological Declaration, a Joint Commission for theological dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East was established (whose members will be present at the meeting between the Patriarch and the Pontiff, ed.), and a text was signed in which Catholics and Assyrians mutually recognize the validity of the sacraments celebrated and administered in the Catholic Church and in the Assyrian Church of the East.
Since 2001, moreover, the Assyrian Church of the East has authorized experiences of Eucharistic hospitality with the Chaldean Church, in pastoral situations that require it.
In recent times, thanks to the work of the Joint Commission, which was created precisely with the aim of “dispelling the obstacles of the past that still prevent the achievement of full communion” between the two Churches, a new phase of dialogue on the liturgy in the life of the Church has begun.
“There was no anathema between the ancient Assyrian Church of the East and the Church of Rome. The separation began with the Council of Ephesus in 431, but the Depositum fidei that we celebrated before Ephesus is shared, and we are called to guard it together,” said Mar Awa III in an interview given a few months ago to Fides. He already saw the year 2022 as an essential milestone on the path to reconciliation: “In 2025, the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea will be celebrated. There has been talk about the possibility of a meeting to celebrate this Council all together: the Church of Rome, the Orthodox Churches, the ancient Churches of the East... Nicaea unites us. Nicaea belongs to everyone. In our different liturgies we recite the Nicene Creed, even if we are not in full communion.” Furthermore, the dialogue between the two Churches continues in other areas, such as deciding on a fixed common date for the celebration of Easter.
Achieving “full communion – Mar Awa III stressed to Fides in the same interview – is a long-term path, and it would be a path to share with all the other non-Catholic Churches, a path guided by intense prayer and by the Holy Spirit himself.” (F.B.) (Agenzia Fides, 8/11/2024)
