Pope Francis received Metropolitan Filüksinos Yusuf Ҫetin, the leading Syrian Orthodox prelate in Turkey, in a June 1 audience.
The prelate is reciprocating an October 2023 visit by Cardinal Kurt Koch, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, to Istanbul, for the groundbreaking of a Syrian Orthodox church there—the first new Christian church that the Turkish government has permitted to be built since 1923.
The Syrian Orthodox Church (CNEWA profile) is among the Oriental Orthodox churches that ceased to be in full communion with the Holy See following the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon (451). It has 1.7 million members, 1.2 million of whom live in India.