JOINT INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION FOR THEOLOGICAL DIALOGUE
BETWEEN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE ASSYRIAN CHURCH OF THE EAST
COMMUNIQUÉ
Rome, 6–9 November 2024
The sixteenth plenary session of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East took place from 6–9 November 2024 at the Domus Sanctae Marthae in the Vatican, hosted by the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity (DPCU). It was the sixth session of the third phase, on ecclesiology, started in 2017. In line with the theme discussed since 2023, this year’s plenary meeting was dedicated to the topic: “Liturgy in the life of the Church: A comparative study of the Latin and the Church of the East’s liturgical traditions”, with a particular focus on the feasts of the Lord and the commemoration of saints in both traditions.
The meeting of the Commission coincided with the second official visit to the Vatican of His Holiness Mar Awa III, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Common Christological Declaration between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East, signed on 11 November 1994 by His Holiness Pope John Paul II and His Holiness Catholicos Patriarch Mar Dinkha IV.
On Wednesday, 6 November, His Holiness Mar Awa III and His Eminence Cardinal Kurt Koch greeted the members of the Commission. His Holiness Mar Awa expressed his gratitude to God for the fruits of the common journey and thanked the members of the Commission over the years for their dedicated work and commitment to the dialogue. Cardinal Koch expressed his best wishes for the dialogue session, underlining the importance of the “doxological ecumenism”, to which the Dicastery will dedicate its plenary session next year.
The members presented and discussed four papers on: “The Feasts of the commemoration of saints in the Roman Latin Church”, by Fr. Jijimon Puthuveettilkalam SJ; “The commemoration of saints in the Church of the East”, by His Beatitude Mar Awgin Kuriakose; “The Feasts of the Lord in the Roman Latin Church”, by Fr. Željko Paša, SJ; and “The Feasts of the Lord in the Church of the East”, by His Grace Mar Abris Youkhanna. During the discussion, the members were pleased to discover a basic convergence in both liturgical traditions expressed and developed in different contexts.
On Thursday, 7 November, at the Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas, an academic act entitled “We Confess One Lord” was organized to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Common Christological Declaration. The event included contributions from Catholicos Patriarch Mar Awa III, Cardinal Kurt Koch, Prof. Theresia Hainthaler, Bishop Antoine Audo, Metropolitan Mar Meelis Zaia, Bishop Johan Bonny, and was attended by the Members of the Joint Commission and numerous scholars and students. All participants underlined the significance of the Common Christological Declaration as a landmark in the fraternal relations between both Churches and in the ecumenical movement in general.
On Saturday 9 November, His Holiness Pope Francis met with His Holiness Mar Awa III, and received the Commission in audience at the Apostolic Palace. In his address, recalling with gratitude the work of the dialogue, Catholicos Patriarch Awa III affirmed that “today, as heirs of that holy work of the Spirit founded by our venerable predecessors forty years ago and brought to fruition by them now thirty years ago, we too pledge ourselves to pray and work for the restoration of the communion of our holy Churches founded by the apostles of our Lord, concerning which He prayed to the Father with great earnest”. Recalling with gratitude the work of the theological dialogue, he expressed the wish that the members of the Commission “will continue to conduct [it] by their in-depth theological research and discussions, for without their preparatory work our journey together could not prove fruitful”.
In his response, Pope Francis also thanked the members of the Commission, affirming that “theological dialogue is indispensable in our journey towards unity, since the unity we yearn for is unity in faith, while dialogue of truth must never be separated from the dialogue of charity and the dialogue of life”. Affirming that “unity in faith has already been achieved by the saints of our Churches”, Pope Francis also announced the inclusion in the Roman Martyrology of Saint Isaac of Nineveh, one of the most venerated fathers of the East Syriac tradition.
The study and discussion of the Commission will continue at the next meeting, which will be hosted by the Assyrian Church of the East, from 2 until 9 November 2025.
Representing different Christian communities in the Middle East, the members of the dialogue commission were particularly concerned by the threatening situation in Lebanon, Syria, and the Holy Land. They prayed and expressed their hope for an immediate ceasefire, a permanent peace, and the return of all displaced persons to their homes and families.
The Assyrian delegation included His Beatitude Mar Meelis Zaia, Metropolitan of Australia, New Zealand and Lebanon (Co-chair); His Beatitude Mar Awgin Kuriakose, Metropolitan of the Archdiocese of India and Southern Gulf; His Grace Mar Abris Youkhanna, Bishop of Duhok and Nineveh; His Grace Mar Elia Isaac, Bishop of Baghdad; Archdeacon George Toma; and Archdeacon William Toma, Under-Secretary of the Synod (Co-Secretary).
The Catholic delegation included the Most Reverend Johan Bonny, Bishop of Antwerp (Co-chair); Most Reverend Antoine Audo, SJ, Bishop of Aleppo for the Chaldeans; Professor Dr. Theresia Hainthaler, Honorary Professor of Sankt Georgen Graduate School of Philosophy and Theology, Frankfurt; Reverend Father Željko Paša, SJ, Dean of the Faculty of Eastern Christian Studies at the Pontifical Oriental Institute; Reverend Father Jijimon Puthuveettilkalam, SJ, Gregorian University; and Reverend Father Hyacinthe Destivelle, OP, Official of the DPCU (Co-Secretary).