First day of 2022 PCPCU Plenary Assembly

3 May 2022

The Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity is being held in the Vatican from 3–6 May 2022 on the theme “Towards an Ecumenical Celebration of the 1700th Anniversary of Nicaea I (325-2025)”.

On 3 May, on the feast of the Holy Apostles Philip and James, Cardinal Koch presided over Holy Mass at the Tomb of Saint Peter. In his homily, the Cardinal President reflected on the Nicaean-Constantinople creed and on "Christocentric Witness in Ecumenism".

After a brief introduction by the Cardinal President, proceedings commenced with the reading of his Prolusio on the Plenary’s theme, in particular on the ecumenical perspectives of the Council of Nicaea and on the relationship between synodality and primacy.

Bishop Brian Farrell, Secretary, then presented the 2020-2022 Activity Report of the PCPCU, which was followed by the Report on the work of the Commission for Religious Relations with Judaism by Revd Father Norbert Hofmann, SDB.

In the afternoon, an updated version of a PCPCU study document entitled “The Bishop of Rome: Primacy and Synodality in Ecumenical Dialogues and in Responses to the Encyclical Ut unum sint" was presented, to which theologians of different Christian traditions were invited to offer a comment, namely Professor Marcus Plested (Orthodox Church in America), Dr Thomas Best (Disciples of Christ), Professor Nicholas Sagovsky (Church of England), and Professor Catherine Clifford (Catholic Church). 

A plenary assembly of the PCPCU was held online on 10 and 11 November 2021 on the working document "Ecumenism in a Time of Pandemic: From Crisis to Opportunity" and on the study paper “The Bishop of Rome”.

The last Plenary Assembly was held from 25–28 September 2018 on the theme “Pentecostals, Charismatics and Evangelicals: Impact on the Concept of Unity”.