Greetings to the Public Academic Act
'We Confess One Lord'
7 November 2024, Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas
Your Holiness, Your Beatitudes,
Your Eminences, Your Excellencies,
Dear Professors, dear brothers and sisters,
We are gathered this evening to commemorate a double anniversary: first, the anniversary of the Common Christological Declaration between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East, and second, the anniversary of the launch of the Joint Commission for Theological Dialogue between our Churches, founded by that same declaration thirty years ago. We should also add a third anniversary: the anniversary of the first official visit to Rome by a Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, which took place forty years ago.
Indeed, the 1984 visit was a turning point in the relations between our Churches and demonstrates that the ‘dialogue of truth’ is impossible without the ‘dialogue of charity’. It was in fact following the visit to Rome of His Holiness Mar Dinkha that unofficial theological conversations began between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church, conversations promoted by the Pro Oriente Foundation. At the outcome of this first phase of unofficial dialogue, Pope John Paul II and the Catholicos-Patriarch Mar Dinkha IV were able to sign in Rome, on 11 November 1994, the historical Common Christological Declaration that we are celebrating this evening. As we shall see in the course of this Academic act, the declaration recognised the ‘legitimacy and rightness’ of the various titles of the Virgin Mary, considered at the time of the Council of Ephesus to be the criteria of Christological orthodoxy: ‘Mother of Christ our God and Saviour’, used by the Assyrian Church, and ‘Mother of God’ (’Theotokos’), used in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions.
The same Common Declaration established a Joint commission for theological dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East. Actually, the declaration not simply instituted the commission, but also entrusted it with a specific agenda: that of restoring full communion, which presupposes, in the terms of the declaration, ‘unanimity concerning the content of the faith, the sacraments and the constitution of the Church’. These three dimensions of full communion – in faith, sacraments and ministry – have been carefully followed by the theological dialogue in its various phases. After the initial phase of dialogue on the Christological faith, the commission began a second phase focusing on the sacraments. This study resulted in an agreement in 2001 on the Eucharistic Anaphora of Addaï and Mari and the publication of a Joint Declaration on sacramental life.
In its first two phases, the theological dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church has thus overcome, in the space of a few years, two major difficulties: a 1,500-year-old controversy on Christological faith on the one hand, and a debate on the validity of a Eucharistic anaphora used since the origins of Christianity on the other. This demonstrates the success of this dialogue and, above all, of its methodology, which can be called an ‘hermeneutical’ methodology, capable of discerning the unity of faith in the diversity of expressions and practices.
In 2018, in accordance with the agenda of the Declaration, a third phase of the dialogue was launched, on the constitution of the Church. This phase resulted in the publication in 2022 of an original and inspiring document on The images of the Church in the Syriac and Latin patristic traditions. The Commission is currently pursuing this third ecclesiological phase by reflecting on the theme of liturgy. Here again, the objective is to find a common ecclesiology on a ‘doxological’ basis, since the liturgy is an essential locus theologicus in the life of our Churches. It is my hope that the same methodology applied in the first two phases of the dialogue will lead to the same achievements.
Of course, this theological dialogue, or ‘dialogue of truth’, would not be possible without the parallel development of the ‘dialogue of love’ and the ‘dialogue of life’. Indeed, never in history have relations between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church been so fraternal. Since the first official visit in 1984, meetings between the primates of our Churches have multiplied. Tonight, I am grateful to His Holiness Mar Awa for making his second official visit to Rome on this special occasion, and I have no doubt that his visit will mark another important step forward in relations between our Churches.
On the ecumenical journey, it is important to look forward, to cultivate in our hearts a healthy impatience and a fervent desire for unity. But it is also sometimes necessary to look back and give thanks, to marvel at how far we have come and to draw inspiration from the enthusiasm of the pioneers who have gone before us.
This is precisely the aim of this commemorative volume, entitled The Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East, published in the Ut unum sint series of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity. Prefaced by His Holiness Pope Francis and His Holiness Catholicos Patriarch Mar Awa III, the book brings together the documents of the rapprochement between our Churches: speeches made during the meetings, joint declarations, messages exchanged on various occasions, and of course the documents of agreement and the communiqués of the Joint Commission for Theological Dialogue.
In this month when the Catholic Church commemorates the 60th anniversary of the conciliar decree on ecumenism Unitatis Redintegratio, may these testimonies inspire us in our common journey towards full communion and help us to realise the dream expressed two years ago by His Holiness Pope Francis during his meeting with His Holiness Catholicos-Patriarch Awa: “I dare even to express a dream – said Pope Francis – that the separation with the beloved Assyrian Church of the East, the longest in the history of the Church, can also be, please God, the first to be resolved”. May this anniversary bring us closer to the fulfilment of this dream. Thank you.