Pope Francis receives members of CEMES

17 Oct 2022


On Monday 17 October Pope Francis received in a private audience Professor Petros Vassiliadis, Honourary President of the Center of Ecumenical, Missiological and Environmental Studies (CEMES) of Thessaloniki, Greece, accompanied by Professor Nikolaos Dimitriadis, current CEMES President, and Professor Dimitrios Keramidas, member of the Executive Committee.

During the audience, the Holy Father was presented with a book entitled “For the Unity of the One Church of Christ” comprising the public lectures of about thirty academics of the Catholic, Eastern Rite Catholic, Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox traditions promoted by the CEMES in 2021 to mark the 30th anniversary of the election  of His All Holiness Bartholomew as Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.

In collaboration with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Orthodox Church of Greece, the CEMES aims at promoting the ecumenical dimension of the theological formation in the Orthodox Churches, as well as a more open attitude to peaceful coexistence among all peoples.

Professor Vassiliadis is also the Director of the Master Programme in Orthodox Ecumenical Theology of the International Hellenic University, which in February 2021 commenced a joint ecumenical initiative with the Institute for Ecumenical Studies of the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) with a view to exploring channels of shared academic research and theological formation.