Pope Francis renews proposal for unified Holy Week celebration with Orthodox Church

MANILA, Philippines — Pope Francis has renewed his proposal for the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church to have a common date to celebrate Holy Week and Easter. 

The proposal, made public during a recent address to an ecumenical gathering, underscores the pontiff's commitment to bridging the centuries-old divide between the Western and Eastern Christian traditions.

The initiative is particularly significant as the Christian world approaches the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea in 2025, one of the most important ecumenical councils of the Christian church.

“In this Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, we can live the anniversary of the Council of Nicaea as a call to persevere on the path toward unity,” the pope said January 25 during an ecumenical evening prayer service at Rome’s Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.

“The Catholic Church is open to accepting the date that everyone wants: a date of unity.”

The pontiff noted that this year, Easter will be celebrated at the same time the Catholic Church’s Gregorian calendar and the Orthodox Church’s Julian calendar.

Pope Francis said that he renews his “appeal that this coincidence may serve as an appeal to all Christians to take a decisive step forward toward unity around a common date for Easter.”

The pontiff’s proposal aligns with his broader vision of fostering ecumenical dialogue and healing divisions that have persisted since the Great Schism of 1054.

Pope Francis made his first proposal for a common date for Easter on June 2015, in his remarks to the International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services 3rd World Retreat of Priests at the Basilica of Saint John Lateran in Rome. 

The current divergence in the celebration of Easter arises from differences in liturgical calendars.

While the Catholic Church follows the Gregorian calendar, introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582, the Orthodox Church primarily adheres to the Julian calendar, established during the Roman Empire. These differences often result in Easter being celebrated on different dates, sometimes weeks apart.

The First Council of Nicaea, convened in 325 AD by Emperor Constantine, aimed to achieve unity among Christians and address theological disputes that were causing divisions within the church. The council took place in Nicaea (modern-day ?znik, Turkey). 

This was not the first time an attempt to reconcile the liturgical calendars of the two biggest Christian churches was done. In March 1997, a summit in Aleppo, Syria, organized by the World Council of Churches proposed a unified method of calculating the date of Easter, but the initiative did not gain universal acceptance.

Ecumenical leaders have expressed cautious optimism about the proposal. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, the primus inter pares of the Eastern Orthodox communion, acknowledged the potential of such a gesture to strengthen ties between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. “We are optimistic, as there is goodwill and willingness on both sides. Because, indeed, it is a scandal to celebrate separately the unique event of the one Resurrection of the One Lord!”, he remarked back in February 2024.

The patriarch also expressed the hope that the Anglican and other Protestant denominations might also consider a common Easter date in the future.

Last November, Bartholomew confirmed that representatives from both Catholic and Orthodox churches have been meeting to discuss about establishing a common Easter date, potentially beginning in 2025.