Ecumenical Patriarch: meetings with Pope Francis are ‘like a precious treasure’

July 01, 2014

The Holy See Press Office has released the text of a letter written by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople extending best wishes to Pope Francis for the feast of Saints Peter and Paul.

The letter, dated June 24, was made public on June 30.

“We retain in our heart, like a precious treasure, the recollection of our recent personal encounters with Your Holiness both in Jerusalem and Rome, which further renewed and sealed our fraternal bonds, while also affirming our desire to continue on the path toward our full union and communion desired by the Lord,” wrote Patriarch Bartholomew, who holds a primacy of honor in Eastern Orthodoxy.

“May the celebrated chief Apostles Peter and Paul intercede to God for His Church and the whole world guiding and encouraging us along the way of truth and love, ‘until we all attain to the unity of the faith ... speaking the truth in love in order that we might grow in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ’” (Eph. 4:13-15).

 

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Further information:

• Lettera di Sua Santità Bartolomeo I, Patriarca Ecumenico di Costantinopoli, al Santo Padre Francesco in occasione della Solennità dei Santi Apostoli Pietro e Paolo (Holy See Press Office, English)