English Wall

TESTIFYING TOGETHER TO THE MESSAGE OF SALVATION

Dettagli

Creato: 14 Ottobre 2012

Hits: 1790

“Our being here means and marks that we are committed to testifying together to the message of salvation and healing for our smaller brothers: the poor, the oppressed, the outcasts, in the world made by God. Let’s start praying for the peace and health of our Christian brothers and sisters who live in the Middle East. In today’s crucible of violence, separation and division that is escalating between peoples and nations, may love and the longing for harmony that we declare here and the understanding we seek through dialogue and mutual respect be a model for our world”.
The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, spoke this morning in St Peter’s Square, at the end of the Eucharistic celebration for the opening of the Year of Faith. Speaking to Benedict XVI, Bartholomew I mentioned the “prayer for unity” said by Jesus in the Gethsemane - “guard them in your name, the one you gave me, for them to be one” - noticing that, “over the centuries, we have really been guarded with Christ’s power and love and, at the right time in history, the Holy Spirit descended upon us and we started the long journey towards the visible unity wished for by Christ”. The Patriarch mentioned the Second Vatican Council, “a life-changing milestone”, and its fifty-year history. “We noticed that, for the Orthodox Church, this has been a time of exchanges and expectations”, he stated, then he mentioned “the calling of the first pan-Orthodox Conferences in Rhodes” and the “pre-Council Conferences in the run-up to the great Council of the Orthodox Churches”, the “dialogue of love” and the “Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church”. “Over the last five decades - he added, speaking of the Joint Commission -, this assembly has achieved several results, as has been proven by a number of important, influential constitutions, statements and decrees. We have considered the renewal of the spirit and the ‘return to the origin’ through liturgical study, biblical research and patristic doctrine. We have appreciated the gradual efforts made to get rid of the strict academic constraints against the opening of ecumenical dialogue, that has led to the mutual repealing of the excommunications of the year 1054, the exchange of wishes, the return of the relics, the start of important dialogues, and the mutual visits to our respective sees”.

© www.agensir.it - october 10th 2012