Patriarch Bartholomew I Calls for Restoration of Full Communion with Rome

Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople met with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on 30 May 2025. During the meeting, Bartholomew reaffirmed his hope for the restoration of full communion with the Church of Rome. In a speech delivered in Budapest, he emphasized the importance of reestablishing the historic “Pentarchy,” the five great apostolic Sees of Christendom, which had been separated for nearly a millennium.

The speech was delivered at the closing of the 27th International Congress of the Society for the Law of the Eastern Churches. During this academic event, Bartholomew inaugurated the new Orthodox Christian Dialogue Center “Fanarion” in Budapest. The center is intended to serve as a “permanent home for the inter-orthodox, inter-Christian and inter-religious encounter,” as well as a “workshop of legal ecumenism” that supports theological dialogue between Catholics and Orthodox.

The meeting took place under the motto “The Bishop of Rome: future horizons from ancient traditions for Catholics and Orthodox.” Bartholomew articulated an ecclesiological reflection, revisiting a theological postulate previously formulated by Joseph Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict XVI. Ratzinger had argued that Rome cannot demand from the East any more regarding the doctrine of primacy than what was formulated and lived during the first millennium.

Bartholomew also referenced the words of his predecessor, Patriarch Atenagoras, who referred to the Pope as “the one who presides in charity.” He explained that the Orthodox tradition views the primacy of the Bishop of Rome not as a universal and immediate jurisdiction, but as a “service of love exercised within, and never above, the communion of the sister Churches.”

The Patriarch highlighted the recent restitution in the Pontifical Yearbook of the historic title of “Patriarch of the West” by Pope Francis in 2024, after it had been withdrawn in 2006. For Constantinople, this return is described as “a small step but far from insignificant,” carrying significant symbolic and encouraging implications for the development of bilateral theological commissions.

Bartholomew argued that this title is the only one of a papal character with a unanimous origin and acceptance in the undivided Church of the first millennium and is organically linked to the ecclesial tradition.

Source: Read the original report (translated from Spanish)