Meeting of the Saint Ireneus group in Thessalonica
The St Ireneus Group was founded in 2004 on the initiative of the bishop of Magdeburg and of the Johann Adam Möhler Institute of Paderborn to aid through its theological research the official dialogue between the Catholic and the Orthodox Churches.
The Group is made up of twenty-six theologians from Europe and the United States, thirteen Catholic and thirteen Orthodox. The members of the Group have not official mandate from their Churches, but intend to study together, each faithful to his own tradition and in a spirit of fraternal discussion, the theological points that constitute an obstacle to full communion between the Orthodox and the Catholic Churches.
In past years the St Ireneus Group met in Greece (Athens), Belgium (Chevetogne), Serbia (Belgrade), Austria (Vienna), Ukraine (Kiev), Germany (Magdeburg), Russia (St Petersburg), and in 2012 in Italy at the monastery of Bose.