Letter 19
To the most blessed bishops of the Visigothic church.
The conversion of King Reccared to Catholic Christianity has opened possibilities for communication between our churches that did not previously exist, and I want to take advantage of them.
We have been separated for two generations — not by theology, for we share the same faith, but by the practical fact that your church was under Arian royal authority and ours was not. The theological correspondence that might have enriched both traditions was, as a result, largely absent. We developed in isolation from each other, addressing the same problems with different resources and different solutions.
I want to propose an exchange of synodal acts: that each side send to the other the acts of the major councils of the past fifty years, so that we can compare what we have addressed, how we have addressed it, and where our approaches diverge. I think both churches would benefit from this, and I think it is the kind of concrete gesture of communion that follows naturally from our now-shared faith.
I am authorized to make this proposal on behalf of several of my colleagues, who join me in warmly welcoming the Visigothic church back into the full fellowship of Catholic Christianity.
Your brother in Christ.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.