Patriarch Kirill of Moscow
The precise differences in theology that caused the Chalcedonian controversy is said to have arisen ""only because of differences in terminology and culture and in the various formulae adopted by different theological schools to express the same matter", according to a common declaration statement between Patriarch Ignatius Jacob III and Pope Paul VI on Wednesday 27 October 1971. In 2015, Pope Francis addressed the Syriac Orthodox Church as "a Church of Martyrs" " welcoming the visit of Ignatius Aphrem II to Holy See. In 2015, Ignatius Aphrem II visited Patriarch Kirill of Moscow of the Russian Orthodox Church and discussed prospects of bilateral and theological dialogue existing since the late 1980s.