Both the Russian Orthodox and Greek Orthodox churches have held extensive ecumenical discussions with Rome, and the patriarchs of both these churches have sought reconciliation with Rome.

Pope John Paul II visited Turkey in 1979 in support of the patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church. In exchange for the support, the Pope was permitted to make a speech in the Orthodox Cathedral wherein he alluded to the primacy of the Papacy, without a word of disagreement from the Orthodox patriarch.

In 1979 a Joint Declaration between the Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church was also conceived, and made this surprising ecumenical statement:

This purification of the collective memory of our churches is an important result of the dialogue of charity and a prerequisite for future progress.

The Russian Orthodox Church had been a longtime enemy of Roman Catholicism, but the Joint Declaration was only the beginning of the drive to unite Orthodoxy and Catholicism. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, a new patriarch was chosen as the head of the Russian Orthodox Church. To the surprise of the world, the new patriarch was not a Russian, and also had strong associations with the ecumenical movement. TIME Magazine reported this:

The Pope may no longer be an Italian, but it goes without saying that the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia must be a Russian. Until last week, that is, when yet another unbreakable rule was broken in the Soviet Union. At the resplendently gilded Trinity-St. Sergius monastery in Zagorsk, ceremonial bells and chimes greeted the election of an Estonian of German stock, Metropolitan Aleksy of Leningrad, as the next Patriarch.ⁱ

The article also says that an anti-Catholic prelate would have sent anti-Catholic signals to the Vatican. Instead, "The widely traveled Aleksy, in contrast, is a committed ecumenist who for 22 years served as president of the Conference of European Churches, a continent-wide Orthodox and Protestant body."

Following these events, Pope John Paul II called upon the Jesuit Order to oversee events in Russia, and take personal care of the retraining of priests for this assignment.ⁱⁱ

Pope Benedict XVI has carried on this relationship with the Orthodox Church. In November 2006, the Pope celebrated the Feast of St. Andrew with Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I, after which Benedict said, "The divisions which exist among Christians are a scandal to the world."ⁱⁱⁱ

In June 2007, Benedict spoke to a delegation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, saying this:

We all desire to accompany its work with persevering prayer. May the Lord enlighten the Catholic and Orthodox members so that they may propose, on the basis of Sacred Scripture and of the Tradition of the Church, solutions that can lead us to make important steps towards full communion. I am very pleased to hear that the Ecumenical Patriarchate and Patriarch Bartholomew I himself are following the work of this Commission with similar sentiments.^iv