Demetrios I of Constantinople, also Dimitrios I or Demetrius I, born Demetrios Papadopoulos (Greek: Δημήτριος Αʹ, Δημήτριος Παπαδόπουλος; 8 September 1914 – 2 October 1991), was the 269th Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 16 July 1972 to 2 October 1991, serving as the spiritual leader of 300 million Eastern Orthodox Christians.
[2] On 30 November 1979, Demetrios I proclaimed the establishment of the official theological dialogue between the Eastern Orthodox and the Catholic Church, at that time led by Pope John Paul II.
[3] At a solemn ceremony in St. Peter's Basilica, the patriarchs of East and West together recited the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed of the Church in Greek as originally defined in 381 AD, without the controversial Filioque clause.
The Pope later recalled the event in his ecumenical encyclical letter Ut Unum Sint.
[4] In an 8-city tour of the United States in 1990, Patriarch Demetrios I met with President George H. W. Bush, with Christian and Jewish leaders, and with public officials, and spread the message that: "Today, Orthodoxy is not a strange or alien factor in America.