Ecumenical Patriarch meets with the Bishop of Augsburg
His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew arrived in Munich early in the afternoon of 5 June 2025, where he was awarded two important distinctions for his contribution to the dialogue of the Churches. Shortly after his arrival in the Bavarian capital, he received at his lodgings the Roman Catholic Bishop of Augsburg, Dr. Bertram Meier, who in his capacity as President of the Council of Christian Churches of Bavaria had visited His All-Holiness at the Phanar.
The bishop of Augsburg is known for his ecumenical and interreligious activity both in Germany and internationally. Among other things, he is chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference’s commission for relations with the universal Church, chairman of the Conference’s commission for interreligious dialogue, and a member of the Vatican Tribunal for Christian Unity, which is chaired by His Eminence Cardinal Kurt Koch.
Bishop Meier is known for his pro-Orthodox stance, which he recently expressed by appointing the nine-year Director of the Bavarian Council of Churches, Orthodox theologian and Archon Hieromnimon of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Mr. Georgios Vlantis, as responsible for issues of ecumenical and interreligious dialogue in the diocese of Augsburg. For the first time in the history of the Roman Catholic Church in Germany, a Roman Catholic diocese has entrusted an Orthodox theologian with the management of the sensitive area of relations with other Churches and religions.
The cordial discussion focused on issues such as the presence of Orthodoxy in Germany, the newly elected Pope Leo XIV, and relations between Orthodox and Roman Catholics.
The meeting was attended by His Eminence Metropolitan Avgoustinos of Germany, the Grand Ecclesiarch Archimandrite Aetios Nikephoros, the Undersecretary of the Holy and Sacred Synod, Deacon Oikoumenios Amanatidis, and the Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Mr. Konstantinos Delikostantis (Director of the First Patriarchal Office) and Mr. Georgios Vlantis.
Source: fosfanariou.gr
