Too early to confirm 2025 Orthodox-Catholic summit
Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople CNS photo/Paul Haring
By Josephine McKenna, Religion News Service
June 8, 2014
VATICAN CITY - A Vatican spokesman said its premature to suggest a gathering between Catholic and Orthodox faiths to mark the 1,700th anniversary of the first Church council held in Nicea in 325.
Despite cordial meetings between Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople during the pontiffs visit to Jerusalem in May, the Vatican has rejected media reports that a 2025 event had been confirmed.
Several news agencies, publications and individuals have reported on this gathering as a fait accompli, said Fr. Thomas Rosica, a Vatican spokesman, in a statement. No formal announcement of or convocation of this event has come from the Vatican. It is very early to jump to conclusions.
The two faiths have been estranged for 1,000 years but hopes for a reconciliation have grown since Francis and Bartholomew, the head of the Orthodox Church, prayed together during the Popes three-day trip to the Holy Land.
http://www.catholicregister.org/home/international/item/18310-too-early-to-confirm-2025-orthodox-catholic-summit