Address by H.H. John Paul II, Rome (May 12-14)

This article reproduces the address delivered by Pope John Paul II during the historic visit of the Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch to Rome in May 1983. It is an official speech of an ecumenical nature, addressed to the Patriarch and the bishops accompanying him. The central idea is that this meeting, the first of its kind in history, constitutes a concrete sign of the will for reconciliation between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church of Antioch. John Paul II invokes the theological heritage of Ignatius of Antioch — particularly his eucharistic and ecclesiological doctrine — as a common foundation for the ongoing dialogue. The address thus sheds light on the state of Catholic-Orthodox theological dialogue in the early 1980s, while situating the ecumenical approach within the geopolitical context of war-torn Lebanon, whose crisis is explicitly evoked.