From the Vatican & around the World

Vatican & the Ecumenical Agenda

Pope Meets with Protestant, Eastern Orthodox Church Members in Cologne 

By Sabina Castelfranco 
Cologne
19 August 2005



VOA - Aug 19/05 - Pope Benedict held an ecumenical meeting in Cologne Friday with members of the Protestant and Orthodox Churches. He underscored the Roman Catholic Church's goal of full Christian unity. The pope is on his first official visit abroad for a gathering of Christian youth from around the world. 


Pope Benedict XVI (r) is welcomed by member of the Jewish community as he arrives for a visit to a synagogue in Cologne 

On his second day in Cologne, after a morning meeting with Jews in the city's synagogue, Pope Benedict focused his attention on reaching out to members of other Christian churches.

The pope met around 30 representatives of other Christian denominations in Germany at the Archbishop's residence. He said that the goal of the Roman Catholic Church is full and visible Christian unity.

Pope Benedict did not outline a program to move ahead along this path, but said he expected further concrete steps to bring Christians closer together. He stressed it is essential at present to carry on dialogue with sincerity and realism, with patience and perseverance. 

He also said Christian unity does not mean uniformity in all expressions of theology and spirituality, in liturgical forms and in discipline. 

After the meeting, representatives of the Orthodox and Protestant churches praised the pope's words and said they were grateful for the opportunity to continue dialogue on the road to ecumenism. 


Pope Benedict XVI waves to young priests as he arrives outside St. Pantaleon Church 
Earlier, the pope held a separate meeting with seminarians in the Church of Saint Pantaleon. Hundreds were waiting for him under the rain as he arrived in his glass-covered pope mobile.

Young people and faithful stretched out their hands hoping to touch the pope as he walked into the church. Some cheered, other took photos. 

The pope told the seminarians their seminary years are a time of preparing for their mission, a time of journeying, of exploration, but above all of discovering Christ.

"It is only when a young man has had a personal experience of Christ that he can truly understand the Lord's will and consequently his own vocation," he said.

Pope Benedict meets German political and civilian authorities Saturday morning. The pope is also scheduled to hold a meeting with the Muslim community before joining young people for an evening vigil. 

CATHOLIC CENTERS AND THE CHALLENGE OF CULTURAL DIALOGUE



VATICAN CITY, JUL 8, 2005 (VIS) - An international meeting of Catholic cultural centers in the Mediterranean has been organized by the Pontifical Council for Culture, in collaboration with the "Hrvatsko Kulturno Drustvo Napredak" Center of Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina. The theme of the gathering is: "The Challenge of a new Cultural Dialogue in the Context of Globalization."

The meeting, which was inaugurated in Sarajevo this morning by Cardinal Paul Poupard, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, is due to last until July 10. It is part of a series of encounters - that began in Barcelona, Spain, in 1996 - on the challenges faced by Catholic cultural centers in the Mediterranean.

Among other themes, participants will consider that of dialogue with Byzantine culture and with Muslims in the light of migration, as well as the challenge of dialogue with the world of non-believers: secularization in the West, and the heritage of communism in the East.

The "Napredak" (Progress) Center - which includes Nobel prize-winners Ivo Andric (literature) and Vladimir Prelog (science) among its former pupils - was founded in 1902 and is located within the archdiocese of Sarajevo. It remained closed under the communist regime but reopened in 1990. It currently has 20,000 members and 66 branches throughout the world.

CON-C/MEETING CATHOLIC CENTERS/POUPARD 

Friday, June 17, 2005 

VATICAN SUMMIT: NO TURNING BACK ON ECUMENICAL JOURNEY
Pope Meets General Secretary of World Council of Churches

By Wolfgang Polzer
Special to ASSIST News Service 

VATICAN CITY (ANS) -- During a summit meeting Pope Benedict XVI and the General Secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Rev Samuel Kobia, have pledged to continue the journey in search of Christian unity. The pontiff received the Kenyan Methodist in the Vatican, June 16.

The Pope represents more than one billion Catholics. The Geneva based WCC is made up of 347 Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican Churches with a total membership of 561 million. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member of the WCC, but it is represented in the Commissions for Faith and Order and for World Mission and Evangelism. 

The road between Rome and Geneva has not always been smooth. In the year 2000 Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, the present Pope, wrote the controversial Vatican document “Dominus Iesus”, in which non-Catholic churches were denied equal status. The Vatican regards them as ecclesiastical communities and not as churches in the proper sense. 

During the meeting with Kobia the Pope characterized the commitment of his Church to the quest for Christian unity as “irreversible”. He expressed the hope that the visit of the WCC delegation would strengthen the bonds of understanding and friendship. Kobia responded by inviting the Pope to the WCC headquarters “as yet one more concrete step in our journey towards visible unity”. 

The General Secretary also offered the WCC’s good services in the Roman Catholic efforts to improve relations with the Eastern Orthodox Churches. They have been complaining about “sheep stealing”, especially in the regions of the former Soviet Union. Since his election in April the Pope has repeatedly emphasized the need to heal the rift between Orthodox and Catholics, dating back to the year 1054. 

Kobia presented a three-point agenda for further collaboration with the Vatican focusing on the understanding of the church, spirituality and ecumenical formation. The WCC delegation included Orthodox leaders and the German Lutheran Bishop Eberhardt Renz, one of eight WCC Presidents. 

"LET US PRAY THE LORD TO GUIDE US TO FULL UNITY"


VATICAN CITY, JUN 29, 2005 (VIS) - In the Vatican Basilica today, solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul, Apostles, the Pope presided at a Eucharistic celebration during which he conferred the pallium on Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals, and on 32 metropolitan archbishops from 21 countries.

As is traditional, the Mass was attended by a delegation from the ecumenical patriarchate of Constantinople, led this year by Ioannis (Zizioulas), metropolitan of Pergamo, and including Gennadios (Limouris), metropolitan of Sassima, and the archimandrite Bartolome, under-secretary of the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

In his homily, the Pope pointed out that today's feast "is both a grateful remembrance of the great witnesses to Jesus Christ, and a solemn confession in support of the Church, one, holy, catholic and apostolic. It is, above all, a feast of catholicity."

"Catholicity," he explained, "means universality: multiplicity that becomes unity, unity that still remains multiplicity." On this subject, the Holy Father also expressed his joy at being able "to give the Church a new guide for the transmission of faith, one that helps us to a better understanding, and hence a better experience, of the faith that unites us: the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church."

Benedict XVI insisted that the compendium must not be read like "a novel. It must be meditated upon calmly in each of its individual parts to allow its contents, through the use of images, to penetrate the soul. I hope that this is how it will be welcomed and that it may become a reliable guide for the transmission of the faith."


Addressing the new metropolitan archbishops, the Pope recalled that the pallium they were about to receive is "an _expression of our apostolic mission. It is an _expression of our communion which has its visible guarantee in the Petrine ministry. The Petrine service is associated with both unity and apostolicity. It visibly reunites the Church of all places and times, thus defending us all from sliding into that false autonomy which can all too easily lead to interior splits in the Church, and thus compromise her internal independence."


The Pope then went on to greet members of the delegation of the Orthodox Church of Constantinople. "Although we still do not agree on the question of the interpretation and extent of the Petrine ministry, we do concur on Apostolic succession, we are profoundly united with one another over episcopal ministry and the Sacrament of the priesthood, and together we confess the faith of the Apostles as it was given us in Scripture, and as interpreted by the great councils.


"In the world at this time so full of skepticism and doubt, but also rich in the desire for God, we again recognize our mission of bearing witness together to Christ the Lord and, on the basis of the unity that has been granted us, to help the world to believe. We pray to the Lord with all our heart that He may guide us to full unity so that the splendor of truth, that alone can create unity, again becomes visible in the world."


Benedict XVI concluded by highlighting the fact that "the Church is not of herself holy but is made up of sinners, as we all know and we can all see. Rather, she is forever sanctified anew by Christ's purifying love. Not only has God spoken, He has loved us in a very real sense, loved us even unto the death of His own Son."

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MAY PETRINE MINISTRY BE A SUPPORT ON PATH TO UNITY


VATICAN CITY, JUN 29, 2005 (VIS) - Pope Benedict, in reflections made before reciting the Angelus today with the faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square, many of whom had just attended the Mass where he bestowed palliums on 32 metropolitan archbishops, spoke of today's feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, Apostles, and of the Petrine ministry of the bishop of Rome.


Telling Romans that he feels close to them on this feast of their patron saints, he said: "Divine Providence called me to be your pastor. I thank you for the affection with which you have welcomed me and I ask you to pray that Sts. Peter and Paul obtain for me the grace to faithfully fulfill the pastoral ministry entrusted to me. As bishop of Rome, the Pope performs a unique and indispensable service to the Universal Church: he is the perpetual and visible beginning and foundation of the unity of bishops and of all the faithful."

Referring to the just-concluded Mass and imposition of the pallium, "the liturgical sign of the communion that links the See of Peter and his Successor to metropolitans and, through them, with all bishops in the world," the Holy Father noted the presence at today's ceremony of the delegation of the ecumenical patriarchate of Constantinople whom he cordially welcomed. "How can we not recall today," he said, "that the primacy of the Church that is in Rome and of her bishops is a primacy of service to Catholic communion. Starting with the double martyrdom of Peter and Paul, all Churches began to look to the one in Rome as a central reference point for doctrinal and pastoral unity."

"May the Virgin Mary, concluded Benedict XVI, "obtain for us that the Petrine ministry of the Bishop of Rome is not seen as a stumbling block but as a support in the walk on the path of unity."

Following the Angelus prayer and greetings to the faithful in various languages, Pope Benedict went to the Domus Sanctae Marthae in the Vatican for lunch with the delegation from the ecumenical patriarchate. They were joined by several other members of the Roman Curia.

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POPE REAFFIRMS COMMITMENT TO SEARCH FOR CHRISTIAN [organizational] UNITY



VATICAN CITY, JUN 30, 2005 (VIS) - The Holy Father this morning welcomed the delegation sent to Rome for the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul by His Holiness Bartholomew I, ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople. An ecumenical delegation traditionally visits Rome for the June 29 feast, whereas a delegation from Rome attends celebrations in Istanbul for the November 30th feast of St. Andrew, patron of the ecumenical patriarchate.


The Pope underscored the "dialogue of charity" between Catholics and Orthodox "begun on the Mount of Olives by Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras, an experience which was not in vain. Many significant gestures have been made since then: I am thinking of the abrogation of the reciprocal condemnations of 1054, of the speeches, documents and encounters promoted by the Sees of Rome and Constantinople. These have marked the path of recent decades." 

He also referred to Pope John Paul's encounter and "fraternal embrace" in St. Peter's Basilica, months before his death, with the ecumenical patriarch. He noted that "our path is long, and not easy" but it has "seen hope grow for a solid 'dialogue of truth' and a process of theological and historical clarification, which has given appreciable fruits."

"There is need," said Benedict XVI, "to join forces, to spare no energy so that the official theological dialogue, which began in 1980 between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches all together, will resume with vigor." He expressed his "recognition to Patriarch Bartholomew who is working very hard to reactivate the work of the Mixed International Catholic-Orthodox Commission. I assure him that it is my firm will to support and encourage this action. Theological research, which must face complex questions and seek solutions that are not reductive, is a serious commitment that we cannot avoid.

"If it is true that the Lord calls with force His disciples to build unity in charity and truth; if it is true that the ecumenical appeal is a pressing invitation to rebuild, in reconciliation and peace, the unity, seriously damaged, of all Christians; if we cannot ignore that division makes the holy cause of proclaiming the Gospel to every person less efficient, how can we avoid the duty of examining with clarity and good will our differences? ... The unity we seek is neither absorption nor fusion but respect for the multiform fullness of the Church which, conformed to the will of her founder Jesus Christ, must always be one, holy, catholic and apostolic."

The Holy Father asked the delegation to inform Patriarch Bartholomew of his "intention to pursue with firm determination the search for full unity among all Christians."

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BE UNITED IN FEELINGS OF HARMONY AND LOVE FOR CHURCH


VATICAN CITY, JUN 30, 2005 (VIS) - At noon today, the Pope received Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals, and the 32 metropolitan archbishops who yesterday received the pallium, accompanied by members of their family.

The Holy Father greeted each of the new metropolitan archbishops individually, and assured them: "I remain united to you with affection and prayer; at the same time I ask you to continue to walk together, united by the same feelings of harmony and of love for Christ and His Church."

Turning to Cardinal Sodano, Benedict XVI thanked him for "the collaboration given over many years to Peter's Successor, I extend my thoughts to all the members of the College of Cardinals, with gratitude for the support and prayer with which they accompany my service as pastor of the universal Church."

Speaking to Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, the new metropolitan archbishop of Krakow, Poland, the Pope thanked him "for all you have done for John Paul II, and for me personally."

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