January 16-17, 2025 | University of Vienna

In January, church historians from Austria, Germany and Switzerland met in Vienna to examine the question of what actually happened in 1054 – the year of the division between the Eastern and Western churches – from a historical and ecumenical perspective, as new research findings shed a different light on this “schism”, which could mean a new starting point and more hopeful prospects for ecumenical relations today.

The event was accompanied by various representatives: H.Em. Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of the Dicastery for the Promotion of Christian Unity, gave a keynote speech entitled “On the way to regaining unity in the Church between East and West”. Greetings were given by H.E. Diocesan Bishop Manfred Scheuer (Linz), who is the Bishop for Ecumenism in the Austrian Bishops’ Conference, Arsenios Kardamakis (Vienna), the Metropolitan of Austria and Exarch of Hungary and Central Europe, and ambassador Clemens Koja (Vienna) in his function as President of Pro Oriente.

Prof. Dr. Dietmar W. Winkler, currently Dean of the Faculty of Catholic Theology at the University of Salzburg and, among other things, consultant to the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, also gave a lecture entitled “For reconciliation and common trust: Patriarch Athenagoras, Cardinal König and the ‘abrogation’ of the Anathemas of 1054”.

Winkler, who was involved in the conception and organization of the symposium, researches and teaches at the Department of Biblical Studies and Church History at the University of Salzburg inter alia on Eastern Churches and ecumenical relations; he recently published by Herder-Verlag together with the church historian and patrologist Prof. Dr. Christian Lange (Würzburg), the Eastern Church scholar Prof. Dr. Karl Pinggéra (Marburg) and Prof. Dr. Hacik Gazer (Erlangen/Nuremberg) the handbook “ Die katholischen Ostkirchen. Herkunft – Geschichte – Gegenwart” – a volume in which international scholars take into account the rich Eastern Church heritage in various traditions and make knowledge about the churches of the East available in a compact form and in one place.

The symposium shows the interest of the Western and Eastern churches, despite obstacles, in walking the path not just side by side, but together.

Austrian media reported – further information on the symposium can be found here.