His Eminence Kurt Cardinal Koch, President of the Pontifical Commission for Christian Unity and Co-President of the International Joint Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Orthodox and of the Roman Catholic Church sent an official letter to His Beatitude Theodoros II, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa.
In this letter, one of the most senior officials of the Holy See, Mr. Cardinal Koch, expresses his grateful thanks to the venerable Alexandrian Primate, for the recent beneficial Convocation of the work of the International Joint Committee of the aforementioned Theological Dialogue in Alexandria, as well as thanking the close associates of His Beatitude, Their Eminences Metropolitans Panteleimon of Naucratis, Chief Secretary of the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Patriarchate and Narcissus of Pelusium, Patriarchal Vicar of Alexandria, for their decisive contribution to the successful organization and carrying out of this historic ecclesiastical event for their decisive contribution to the successful organization and conduct of this historic ecclesiastical event in the City of M. Alexander, for the first time in the City of Alexander the Great.
It is noted that the International Commission is the highest official body for the “Dialogue of Love” between the Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Church. The aforementioned Commission met for the first time on the holy island of Patmos in the year 1980 and progressively discussed in various parts of the world a series of critical theological issues, with sincerity and a spirit of brotherly love.
The Declarations-Texts issued at these meetings formed the foundation and point of reference for the ongoing global meeting and dialogue between the two Churches to overcome the theological differences, which the centuries have accumulated since the Schism of 1054 AD onwards.
The last meeting of the Commission was held in Chieti, Italy in the year 2016, on the theme of Primacy and Synodality in the Church in the first millennium. The Commission continued its work on the same subject in the second millennium, in the current year 2023, in Alexandria, Egypt.