Your All Holiness, beloved brother in Christ,
Your Beatitudes,
Dear brothers in the Episcopate,
Members of the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate,
Dear brothers and sisters!

Our pilgrimage to the places where the First Ecumenical Council in the history of the Church was held draws to a close with this solemn Divine Liturgy, in which we have commemorated the Apostle Andrew. According to ancient tradition, he brought the Gospel to this city. His faith is the same as our faith, namely that which was defined by the Ecumenical Councils and is professed by the Church today. During this ecumenical prayer, together with the Heads of Churches and Representatives of Christian World Communities, we have recalled that the faith professed in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed unites us in real communion and allows us to recognize each other as brothers and sisters. In the past, there have been many misunderstandings and even conflicts between Christians of different Churches, and there are still obstacles preventing us from achieving full communion. Nevertheless, we must not relent in striving towards unity. We must continue to consider each other as brothers and sisters in Christ and to love one another accordingly.

Inspired by this awareness, sixty years ago Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras solemnly declared that the unfortunate decisions and sad events that led to the mutual excommunications of 1054 should be removed from the Church’s memory. That historic gesture by our venerable predecessors inaugurated a path of reconciliation, peace and growing communion between Catholics and Orthodox, which has been fostered through frequent contact, fraternal meetings and promising theological dialogue. In light of the advances already made, significant steps have been taken at ecclesiological and canonical levels, and today we are called even more to commit ourselves to the restoration of full communion.

In this regard, I wish to express my deep gratitude to His All Holiness and the Ecumenical Patriarchate for their ongoing support for the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. I also hope that every effort will be made to ensure that all the autocephalous Orthodox Churches return to take an active part in this endeavor.  For my part, in continuity with the teaching of the Second Vatican Council and my predecessors, I wish to confirm that, while respecting legitimate differences, the pursuit of full communion among all those baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, is one of the priorities of the Catholic Church. In particular, it is one of the priorities of my ministry as Bishop of Rome, whose specific role in the universal Church is to be at the service of all, building and safeguarding communion and unity.

In order to remain faithful to the Lord’s desire for us to care not only for our brothers and sisters in faith, but also for all of humanity and the whole of creation, our Churches must respond together to the promptings of the Holy Spirit today. First of all, at this time of bloodstained conflict and violence in places both near and far, Catholics and Orthodox are called to be peacemakers. This certainly means taking action, making choices and adopting gestures that build peace, while also acknowledging that peace is not merely the fruit of human effort, but is a gift from God. Peace, therefore, must be sought through prayer, penance, contemplation and nurturing a living relationship with the Lord, who helps us to discern what words, gestures and actions to undertake so that we can genuinely be at the service of peace.

A further challenge facing our Churches is the threatening ecological crisis, which His All Holiness has often said requires of us a spiritual, personal and communal conversion for changing direction and safeguarding creation. Catholics and Orthodox alike are called to work together in promoting a new mindset so that everyone acknowledges responsibility for caring for the creation that God has entrusted to us.

The third challenge that I would like to mention is the use of new technologies, especially in the field of communications. Aware of the enormous advantages that they can offer humanity, Catholics and Orthodox must cooperate in promoting their responsible use. Indeed, these technologies must be placed at the service of integral human development, and be universally accessible, so as to ensure that their benefits are not reserved to a small number of people or the interests of a privileged few.

In addressing these challenges, I am confident that all Christians, the members of other religious traditions, and all men and women of good will can cooperate harmoniously in working together for the common good.

Your All Holiness, with these heartfelt thoughts, I offer you and your brothers and sisters my most fervent wishes for good health and serenity as you celebrate the Feast of your patron saint. I would like to express my sincere gratitude for the warm and fraternal welcome you have extended to me during these days. I entrust all of you, therefore, to the intercession of the Apostle Andrew and his brother Saint Peter, Saint George the Great Martyr to whom this Church is dedicated, the Holy Fathers of the First Council of Nicaea and the many Holy Pastors of this ancient and glorious Church of Constantinople. And I ask God, the Father of mercies, abundantly to bless all those present.

Hrònia Pollà! Ad multos annos!