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Pope Francis’ death was announced early on the morning of April 21st, 2025, mere hours after Christians the world over celebrated Easter Sunday together for the first time since 2017. One of the more dignified responses to the somber news, worthy of both the man it honored and the faith that both men shared, came from His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
He remembered the late Pope quite simply as a “precious brother in Christ.” Years ago, he characterized their fraternal bond in similarly straightforward but affectionate terms: “There is a chemistry between us. We feel comfortable in each other’s presence. He has a sense of humor. He is simple and humble…Our friendship was instantaneous and spontaneous.”
Struck on the auspicious morning of March 19th, 2013, their friendship certainly was “instantaneous and spontaneous.” Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew’s attendance at the inaugural mass of Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square that morning was both unexpected and largely unprecedented.
“I simply knew something was different about this man; from the very beginning, with his election, I sensed something very genuine,” he reflected years later.
As the first Ecumenical Patriarch to attend a papal inauguration in more than a millennium, he was also the only non-Catholic leader invited to exchange the kiss of peace with the new Pope—a gesture that not only brought the two men closer together but also symbolized the opening of a new horizon along the path to reconciliation for their respective Christian traditions.
Their extraordinary friendship that began that morning would go on to touch the lives of billions: Catholics and Orthodox, Christians and non-Christians, believers and unbelievers alike. What seemed to draw the two leaders together was, above all, their heartfelt concern over the growing plague of indifference in contemporary society towards the plight of the most vulnerable: children, immigrants, the impoverished and disabled—even and perhaps most especially the non-human members of creation, who have no voice or agency at all apart from our own.
In his 2020 book, Let Us Dream, Pope Francis warned against the growing prevalence of an attitude he referred to as “so-whatism”—a kind of hardheartedness that grows from a mixture of willful ignorance about the world around us and a lack of faith in the promise of change for the better.
It was fighting against this culture of conceitedness and contempt for others that nearly thirty years ago, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew earned his moniker, the “Green Patriarch,” as the first major religious leader to unequivocally declare that abusing the natural world is a sin.
At almost the same time, as the newly-appointed Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Pope Francis would likewise earn a nickname, obispo villero (“slum bishop”), for his exceptional dedication to the urban poor. Each in his own way, then—and well before their paths ever crossed—the late Pope and current Ecumenical Patriarch engaged themselves in a prophetic crusade against the contemporary culture of indifference.
In a word, it was their hope in the Resurrection and faith in the ultimate triumph of the Kingdom of Heaven that first inspired them as individual leaders to pursue such far-sighted endeavors. And, indeed, it was this same sense of hope that would eventually bring them together as friends, brothers, and co-workers in the service of Christ.
If the spiritual thrust of their friendship comprised both concern over the present plague of indifference and faith in the panacea of hope, then its fruits were harvested at three key moments over the course of three consecutive years: first, the Apostolic Pilgrimage to Jerusalem on the fiftieth anniversary of Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras and Pope Paul VI’s historic meeting on the Mount of Olives; second, the composition and joint launching of the groundbreaking encyclical, Laudato Si’; and third, the sobering visit to the Aegean island of Lesvos at the height of the Mediterranean refugee crisis.
A Journey
It was Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew’s idea to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the historic Mount of Olives meeting with a pilgrimage to Jerusalem alongside his papal counterpart. In early 1964, their respective predecessors, Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras and Pope Paul VI, made history when they met, prayed together, and exchanged tokens of friendship at the site of Christ’s Ascension—the first time a Pope and Ecumenical Patriarch stood face-to-face in more than five-hundred years. Not one to waste an opportunity, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew shared his vision of a joint pilgrimage with Pope Francis only hours after the latter’s inaugural mass concluded in mid-March of 2013.
Just over a year later in May of 2014, the Apostolic Pilgrimage to Jerusalem commenced. Over a period of four days, the Pope and Ecumenical Patriarch made pastoral visits to the local Catholic and Eastern Orthodox communities; they prayed for Christian unity at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre; and they hosted meetings with both Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
They also issued a powerful joint statement that laid the groundwork for their future collaboration. Touching on issues of religious freedom, poverty and injustice, the family and (providentially) the environment, the statement expressed for the first time their shared commitment to combatting indifference and spreading the Gospel message of hope:
In an historical context marked by violence, indifference and egoism, many men and women today feel that they have lost their bearings. It is precisely through our common witness to the good news of the Gospel that we may be able to help the people of our time to rediscover the way that leads to truth, justice and peace.
In addition to its ecumenical significance, their pilgrimage to Jerusalem also took on geopolitical dimensions. Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew used their time together as an opportunity to invite Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to participate in a peace summit and prayer service held only weeks later at the Vatican. Ultimately, both parties accepted their invitation and met under the joint pastoral oversight of Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew—a rare glimmer of hope amidst an ongoing conflict that has since plunged into an abyss of moral darkness.
A Triumph
Pope Francis was responsible for initiating their next shared endeavor. While Laudato Si’ is commonly referred to as an environmental or “green” encyclical, Pope Francis insisted it is primarily a social statement: “The green and the social go hand in hand. The fate of creation is tied to the fate of all humanity.”
In this assertion, he echoed Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in his celebrated 1997 Santa Barbara address: “How we treat the earth and all of creation defines the relationship that each of us has with God. It is also a barometer of how we view one another.”
For both leaders, then, an authentically Christian “ecological ethic” places equal emphasis on maintaining the integrity of creation and upholding the righteousness of interpersonal relations.
Representing the Ecumenical Patriarch at the Vatican for the launch of Laudato Si’ on June 18th, 2015, was Metropolitan John (Zizioulas) of Pergamum. Metropolitan John, a brilliant theologian who for many years headed the Religious and Scientific Committee of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, stated in his address that Laudato Si’ contains “food for thought for all: the scientist, the economist, the sociologist, and above all the faithful of the Church.”
Among its key inspirations, of course, was the ascetical and sacramental worldview of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and the Orthodox Church in general. As the encyclical notes in its opening paragraphs,
[Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew] asks us to replace consumption with sacrifice, greed with generosity, wastefulness with a spirit of sharing, an asceticism which ‘entails learning to give, and not simply to give up. It is a way of loving, of moving gradually away from what I want to what God’s world needs. It is liberation from fear, greed and compulsion.’ As Christians, we are also called ‘to accept the world as a sacrament of communion, as a way of sharing with God and our neighbours on a global scale. It is our humble conviction that the divine and the human meet in the slightest detail in the seamless garment of God’s creation, in the last speck of dust of our planet.’
A Reckoning
The following year in 2016, Pope Francis travelled alongside Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to the Aegean island of Lesvos, where they were joined by the Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, His Beatitude Ieronymos II.
Amidst a refugee crisis that saw people fleeing political and religious violence, systemic poverty, and other forms of physical, social, and economic oppression throughout the Middle East and across the continent of Africa, the Mediterranean Sea became for many the last formidable obstacle on a perilous journey towards the dream of a new life in Europe.
Small islands like Lesvos and, closer to the Vatican, Lampedusa, were haphazardly transformed into havens for hundreds of thousands of refugees awaiting resettlement in more prosperous and accommodating locales throughout the European Union—a promise that was only begrudgingly kept (and often outright flouted) by Greece and Italy’s more affluent neighbors.
In his remarks at Moria, at that time the largest refugee camp in Europe, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew stressed the importance of simply being present with those who are suffering, regardless of who they are or where they come from:
We have traveled here to look into your eyes, to hear your voices, and to hold your hands. We have traveled here to tell you that we care. We have traveled here because the world has not forgotten you…Those who are afraid of you have not looked at you in the eyes. Those who are afraid of you do not see your faces. Those who are afraid of you do not see your children.
Pope Francis closed his remarks on a similar note: “This is the message I want to leave with you today: do not lose hope! The greatest gift we can offer one another is love: a merciful look, a readiness to listen and understand, a word of encouragement, a prayer.”
The joint statement issued by Pope Francis, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, and Archbishop Ieronymos was emphatic in its critique of all forms of violence and scathing in its condemnation of the wider world’s complacency, bordering on complicity, in the face of such a crisis:
World opinion cannot ignore the colossal humanitarian crisis created by the spread of violence and armed conflict, the persecution and displacement of religious and ethnic minorities, and the uprooting of families from their homes, in violation of their human dignity and their fundamental human rights and freedoms.
The tragedy of forced migration and displacement affects millions, and is fundamentally a crisis of humanity, calling for a response of solidarity, compassion, generosity and an immediate practical commitment of resources. From Lesvos, we appeal to the international community to respond with courage in facing this massive humanitarian crisis and its underlying causes, through diplomatic, political and charitable initiatives, and through cooperative efforts, both in the Middle East and in Europe.
In a grim epilogue to their visit, the Moria refugee camp swelled in size over the ensuing years, eventually reaching an estimated population of twenty thousand inhabitants enclosed in a space intended to house merely three thousand.
In September of 2020, after COVID-19 struck the camp and forced officials to implement stricter lockdown procedures, a devastating fire razed most of its makeshift habitations, leaving thousands of refugees homeless on the streets of Lesvos; no replacement camp was ever constructed. In a stirring homily on martyrdom delivered in 2017, Pope Francis would draw criticism for comparing Moria and countless other refugee sites like it throughout the world to the dreadful reality of concentration camps.
A Future?
In the decade since these key moments occurred, the world grew only more chaotic and threatened by the eclipse of hope. Yet as both men aged, they remained steadfast in their commitment to collaboration. Even into the early months of 2025, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Pope Francis eagerly planned to commemorate together the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea.
Instead, it was Francis’ successor, Pope Leo XIV, who formally received the historic Orthodox-Catholic pilgrimage, “From Rome to New Rome,” earlier this year in July; and it will be Pope Leo who travels to Iznik (Nicea) and Istanbul (Constantinople) this week to exchange fraternal greetings with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and commemorate the Phanar’s Patronal Feast of St. Andrew.
After first meeting Pope Leo in May of this year, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew confessed he visited the tomb of Francis and, in his words, “I said prayers and I thanked him for his love for the Orthodox Church, especially the church of Constantinople, and I promised him to continue our collaboration with his successor, Leo XIV.”
He also recalled, in remarks delivered to the Orthodox and Catholic pilgrims who visited the Phanar this summer, that Pope Francis had always been fond of the idea of pilgrimage: “The late Pope used to say that we are all, especially this year, when we celebrate Nicaea, we are pilgrims of hope.”
Pope Francis was also a great proponent of synods and synodality. A compound of the Greek words syn (“with” or “together”) and odos (“way” or “path”), a synod is a convocation of the whole Church, traditionally represented by an assembly of hierarchs but not necessarily precluding the participation of other clergy members and laity. Understood literally, it is the “way together” or the “path taken with others.”
A major question facing both Orthodox and Catholics today centers on if and how we can uphold the ancient but essential ecclesial principles laid out in the Nicene Creed. What can the oneness, the holiness, the apostolicity, and the catholicity of the Church mean in a global context that is bitterly divided, increasingly secular, driven by novelty, and often paradoxically and perplexingly insular?
In broaching this hard question, both through their collaborative efforts and in their individual ministries and pursuits, Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew were often denounced by critics for statements and actions deemed needlessly political, deceptively disingenuous, or simply unbecoming of their high spiritual offices.
Indeed, their common ethical pronouncements were often inconveniently eschatological, even if the topics they tended to address—first among them, poverty, ecology, and ecumenism—appear to us at first glance to be all-too-worldly concerns. I mean by this that they treated the Gospel not in the manner of an historical account of Christ’s life, but as a sign from the future of the Resurrection and a template for life in the Kingdom of Heaven—which, we so often seem to forget, begins here and now on earth.
Consequently, they not only dreamed of but lived for a “culture of mercy,” in Pope Francis’s words, or a koinonia agapis, a “communion of love,” in the traditional Orthodox formulation. Perhaps this made them too bold in their preaching or prone to pursuing drastic measures in their capacity as Church leaders, guided by a kind of naïve utopianism veiled beneath the guise of good intentions. But we certainly face a choice: to live in the world—to even love the world—without drawing our source of life and love from the world; that is, to live presently according to our hope in the future promise of the world’s ultimate renewal (2 Pet 3:11-13). Or, conversely, to live in the world according to its own logic and principles, whether that takes the form of a “religious” contempt for others or a “secular” embrace of all that passes away (1 Jn 2:15-17).
At the very least, Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew were responsible for raising universal awareness of this existential choice by using their positions of temporal authority to divert our attention, even if only momentarily, to issues that, here and now, concern the “life of the age to come.”
I close here with an excerpt from Pope Francis’ foreword to Bartholomew: Apostle and Visionary, a book prepared by Rev. Dr. John Chryssavgis for the occasion of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew’s twenty-fifth enthronement anniversary in 2016. It both reiterates the key themes of their extraordinary friendship and points towards a “way together” for all Christians of goodwill, Orthodox and Catholic alike, illumined by the beacon of our common hope in the peace “which surpasses all understanding” (Phil 4:7):
I have found a profound spiritual sensitivity in Patriarch Bartholomew toward the painful condition of humanity today, so profoundly wounded by unspeakable violence, injustice, and discrimination. We are both greatly disturbed by the grave sin against God, which seems to increase day by day, that is the globalization of indifference toward the defacement of the image of God in man. It is our conviction that we are called to work toward the construction of a new civilization of love and solidarity. We are both aware that the voices of our brothers and sisters, now to the point of extreme distress, compel us to proceed more rapidly along the path of reconciliation and communion between Catholics and Orthodox, precisely so that they may be able to proclaim credibly the Gospel of Peace that comes from Christ.
Notes and bibliography:
Unless otherwise noted, all quotes from Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew are drawn from Bartholomew: Apostle and Visionary (Thomas Nelson, 2016) by Rev. Dr. John Chryssavgis. Chapter 2, “Heart Wide Open,” provides valuable insight into the personal dimension of the Patriarch’s ecumenical endeavors, particularly in relation to Pope Francis and the Catholic Church.
Pope Francis, Let us Dream, ed. Austen Ivereigh (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2020), 32.
For the full text of the Santa Barbara address, see Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, On Earth as in Heaven, ed. John Chryssavgis (New York: Fordham University Press, 2012), 95-100.
For the full text of Metropolitan John’s statement, see “Pope Francis and Laudato Si’” in Priests of Creation: John Zizioulas on Discerning an Ecological Ethos, eds. John Chryssavgis and Nikolaos Asproulis (London: T&T Clark, 2021), 214-220.
Laudato Si’, paragraph 9.
Pope Francis, “Foreword” to Bartholomew: Apostle and Visionary, ix-xii.
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