page_title: Catholic Church and ecumenism
section_title: The Eastern Orthodox Churches
hierarchical_section_title: Catholic Church and ecumenism / Relations with churches of the East / The Eastern Orthodox Churches
caption_attribution_description: עברית: תמונות מהמפגש בין האפיפיור פרציסקוס לבין הפטריארך האקמוני ברתולמאוס בכנסיית הקבר.English: Pope Francis &amp; Patriarch Bartholomew I in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.Español: El Papa Francisco y el Patriarca Bartolomé I en la Iglesia del Santo Sepulcro en Jerusalén. Français&#160;: Le pape François et le patriarche Bartholomée Ier dans l'église du Saint-Sépulcre à Jérusalem. Português: Papa Francisco e Patriarca Bartolomeu I na Igreja do Santo Sepulcro, em
context_page_description: The Catholic Church has engaged in the modern ecumenical movement especially since the Second Vatican Council and the issuing of the decree Unitatis redintegratio and the declaration Dignitatis humanae. It was at the Council that the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity was created. Before that time, those outside of the Catholic Church were categorised as heretics or schismatics.
context_section_description: The 1993 Balamand declaration of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue Between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church discusses ecclesiological principles and suggests practical rules for both the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches to implement about improving relations by reciprocally avoiding interfering in each other's Churches and not using history in a polemical manner. According to Cardinal Edward Cassidy, the report contains three principles: that individuals have the freedom to follow their conscience, that Eastern Catholic Churches have the right to exist, that uniatism is not the current method of full communion; and two conclusions: that the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches are "sister churches" and that rebaptism should be avoided. The principle that "the inviolable freedom of persons and their obligation to follow the requirements of their conscience", is foundational, according to Cassidy, "and justifies both the personal choice to adhere to the Catholic Church or to the Orthodox Church, and offers the possibility of returning to the Catholic Church for those communities which in 1945–49 had been forced to convert by Communist regimes to become part of the Orthodox Church," as happened in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, the Socialist Republic of Romania and the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. The Eastern Catholics rejected the report "because it seemed to imply they should never have existed in the first place" while the Eastern Orthodox rejected it because it did not call for the abolition of the Eastern Catholic Churches.
  On 3 July 2019, it was revealed that during a Vatican meeting with Orthodox Archbishop Job of Telmessos, who represented the Orthodox Church's Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, during the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul on 29 June 2019, Pope Francis stated that unity rather than leveling differences should be the goal between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. Pope Francis also gave Bartholomew nine bone fragments which were believed to have belonged to St. Peter and which were displayed at a public Mass which was held in the Vatican in November 2013 to celebrate the 'Year of Faith.'
caption: Pope Francis with Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople
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