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How did Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I address the excommunications of 1054 in 1965?
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Eastern Orthodoxy
Jesus Christ, detail of the Deesis mosaic, from the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, 12th century.
In 1965, Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I took a historic step toward reconciliation by revoking the mutual excommunication decrees that had fueled the East-West Schism since 1054.12
This gesture followed a landmark meeting between the two leaders in Jerusalem in 1964, which marked the first time the heads of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches had conferred since 1439. The formal revocation was accomplished through simultaneous ceremonies held in St. Peterās Basilica in Rome and the patriarchal church in Constantinople.12
While this act did not end the schism, it served as a significant symbolic movement toward healing the long-standing division between the two traditions.2