Catholics and Orthodox will celebrate Easter on the same day

The year 2025 is exceptionally rich in events for the Church! In addition to the Jubilee and the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, Orthodox and Catholics will celebrate Easter on the same day, April 20, 2025. A coincidence due to the exceptional concordance of the Julian (Orthodox) and Gregorian (Catholic and other Christian denominations) calendars. ).

For Catholics and Orthodox alike, Easter is the peak of liturgical life. But due to differences in calculations, it is not always celebrated on the same day. A recurring subject of discussion within ecumenical dialogue, the date of Easter was first discussed at the Council of Nicaea in 325. At the time, the date was set on the first Sunday after the full moon following the equinox of spring. But the Julian calendar (created by Julius Caesar around 45 BC) calculates a year that is slightly too long (eleven minutes too long). During the Renaissance, the gap was such that Pope Gregory XIII, in 1582, deleted ten days and reformed the calendar. The Gregorian calendar then became the reference for Western Churches. On the other hand, the Orthodox Church remains on the Julian calendar. If Catholics and Orthodox observe the same rule decreed at the Council of Nicaea concerning the date of Easter, the latter can be celebrated on the same day or up to five weeks later depending on whether the calculation is Julian or Gregorian.

Finding a common date to celebrate the resurrection of Christ nevertheless remains a wish dear to Pope Francis. A wish that Pope Paul VI had already expressed in a letter of March 26, 1975 to the Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios I. The former Pope then mentioned the reasons for such a proposal: “The resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ is the very foundation of our faith, this faith which is questioned by so many people. (…) Strengthened by this conviction and trusting in the power of the risen Christ and his Spirit, we express the hope that by celebrating this supreme mystery with one heart and one voice, we will be able to give glory to God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”.

Since the start of his pontificate, Pope Francis has reiterated calls for Catholics and Orthodox to celebrate the resurrection of Christ on the same day. An interfaith working group, called Pasqua Together 2025 (Easter together 2025), was even created in 2022 with a view to finding a common date. On September 19, while receiving members of this working group (also called to work on the JC2033 initiative with a view to celebrating the 2,000 years of the death of Christ), Pope Francis insisted that ” the common celebration of the day of resurrection is no longer an exception, but becomes the norm. The Pope considered that the concordance of the dates of Easter and the anniversary of the Council of Nicaea (during which the Credobut also the date of Easter), is an “important sign” and an opportunity that “must not be let pass in vain”.