VATICAN - Benedict XVI welcomes Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I: “May the Year of St Paul help Christians to renew their ecumenical efforts and intensify common initiatives on the path towards communion among all the disciples of Christ ”

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – "May the Year of St Paul help Christians to renew their ecumenical efforts and intensify common initiatives on the path towards communion among all the disciples of Christ ” the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI said in his address to His Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, whom he received in audience on 28 June in the Vatican, on the occasion of the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul and the opening of the Year of St Paul.
“The celebration of Saints Peter and Paul, patron saints of the Church of Rome, and that of Saint Andrew, Patron Saint of the Church of Constantinople, offer us every year the opportunity to exchange visits– Pope Benedict said in his address -, important occasions for fraternal conversation and shared moments of prayer. This improves reciprocal personal knowledge, harmonises initiatives and increases the hope, we all nourish, to reach soon full unity in obedience to the Lord's command”.
Besides the Year of Saint Paul, indicted by Benedict XVI to “promote deep reflection on the theological and spiritual legacy the Apostle of the Nations left to the Church as well as his vast and intense work of evangelisation”, a Year of Saint Paul has also been indicted by the Ecumenical Patriarch. “This happy coincidence – said Benedict XVI - reveals the roots of our common Christian vocation and the significant harmony of sentiments and pastoral activity in which we live”.
The Pontiff recalled St Paul's teaching on the unity of Christians, and he said he hoped “that our common faith, one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins and obedience to the one Lord and Saviour might be expressed as soon as possible in the community and ecclesial dimension ”. He continued: “In our world where despite a consolidated phenomenon of globalisation division and conflict persists, man feels a growing need for certainties and peace. At the same time he is misled and almost ensnared by a certain hedonistic relativistic culture which questions the very existence of the truth. In this regard the Apostle's advice is more than appropriate for encouraging efforts to reach full unity among Christians, so necessary if we are to offer the men and women of the third millennium ever more luminous witness of Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life. Only in Christ and his Gospel does humanity find the answer to its deepest longings”. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 30/6/2008)