Pro Oriente

The Pro Oriente foundation was established by Cardinal König of Vienna in 1964 to promote relations between the Catholic Church and the eastern churches, both Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox. Always acting unofficially, it has had great success, fostering personal contacts among leading figures and organizing conferences in which long-standing doctrinal issues could be addressed. This chapter considers how its activities and initiatives helped the official dialogue to get under way between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church and assisted in the major Christological declarations that broke the ice between the Catholic Church and the Oriental Orthodox churches. More recently, Pro Oriente has also facilitated dialogue with the Assyrian Church of the East, within the ambit of discussion among all the churches of Syriac tradition. The remarkable contribution of Pro Oriente to ecumenical rapprochement via several major series of scholarly publications is also indicated.