Eleuterio Francesco Fortino

Eleuterio Francesco Fortino, also Archimandrite Eleuterio, (* April 21, 1938 in Lattarico, Cosenza, Calabria, † 22 September 2010 in Rome ) was an Italian- Albanian theologian and ecumenicist. He was considered one of the most important experts of the Holy See and the Eastern Churches pioneer of ecumenism.

Life

Fortino was born into a Arbëresh family from the southern Italian Italo- Albanian community of San Benedetto Ullano. He studied from 1958 to 1965 philosophy and theology in the monastery of Santa Maria di Grottaferrata, at the Pontifical Greek College of St. Athanasius in Rome, the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. Eleuterio Fortino received on 24 November 1963 at the Collegio Greco ordained a priest and was incardinated into the Eparchy Lungro the Italo - Albanian Church. In 1965 he became pastor of the Italo- Albanian Catholics in Rome at the Church of St. Anastasius the Greeks, and later Archimandrite of the Italo - Albanian Eparchy of Calabria.

Fortino was exhibited at the last session of the Second Vatican Council of 1965 and was subsequently appointed by the Curia Bishop Johannes Willebrands in the 1960 newly established Secretariat for Christian Unity. Main task was to support the Orthodox churches, especially the Greek-Catholic Church and the Romanian Greek- Catholic Church. In 1987 he was appointed undersecretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, also head of the contacts with the Orthodox. He was also secretary of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church.

The Italian student union called Fortino as " soul and engine of the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity, at the Vatican ."

Fortino has published numerous writings. The Osservatore Romano has published over 250 articles in his 45 years.

He died after a long illness at the Hospital of the University of Tor Vergata. Fortino was buried in his home town of San Benedetto Ullano.

Honors

  • La Rosa D' Argento (2007)
  • The Silver Rose of St. Nicholas of Myra (2008)
  • Premio Premio San Demetrio e Arberia (2009)

Writings

  • Liturgia Greca, Chiesa di S. Atanasio 1970
  • S. Atanasio: la Greca liturgia a Roma, Chiesa di S. Atanasio 1970
  • Il dialogo Ecumenico. Verso il Terzo millenio ( Volume 9 of Terzo millenio cristiano ), graphite Alica 2000, ISBN 978-88-87773-21-7
  • Missione e Missionarieta in Giovanni Paolo II, Ed. Urban University Press, Vatican City 2004, ISBN 88-401-4009-3
September 22 Province of Cosenza
302936
de