Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – “I follow with satisfaction the full resuming of the functioning of your Synod and encourage efforts to promote unity, understanding and forgiveness, which you should always consider priority duties for the edification of God's Church. Moreover I pray incessantly for peace in the Middle East, especially for the Christians living in the beloved nation of Iraq, whose suffering I present every day to the Lord during the Eucharistic Sacrifice”. These words are part of the address given by the Holy Father Benedict XVI to Catholic patriarch of Antioch of the Syrians, Ignace Youssef iii Younan, received in audience on 19 June.
The Holy Father in his speech underlined: “Divine Providence constituted us ministers of Christ and Bishops of his one flock. Therefore let us keep the eyes of our heart set on Him, supreme Pastor and Bishop of our souls, certain that after placing on our shoulders the munus Episcopal, he will never abandon us”. The Pope went on to recall that in the course of the more than millennial history of the Syrian Catholic community, “communion with the Bishop of Rome has always continued hand in hand with fidelity to the spiritual tradition of the Christian East, and both form the complementary aspects of that unique heritage of faith which your venerable Church professes ”. Then Benedict XVI, after mentioning his homily for the Feast of Corpus Christi, in which he cited Saint Ephrem the Syrian, stressed that “it is the Eucharist which founds our different traditions in the unity of the same Spirit, rendering them a treasure for the whole people of God. May the celebration of the Eucharist, source and summit of ecclesial life, keep you anchored to the ancient Syrian tradition, which claims to possess the very language of the Lord Jesus and, at the same time, open for you the horizon of ecclesial universality!... May you therefore draw from the Eucharist, Sacrament of unity and communion, the strength to overcome the difficulties encountered by your Church in recent years, in order to rediscover the path of forgiveness, reconciliation and communion”.
Lastly the Holy Father recalled the opening of the Year of the Priesthood, and he said: “Today, we make our way spiritually to the foot of the Cross, with all your priests, to contemplate the One who was pierced and from whom we have received the fullness of grace. Mary the Blessed Virgin Mary Maria, Queen of the Apostles and Mother of the Church, watch over you, Your Beatitude, the Synod and the entire Syrian Catholic Church!” (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 20/6/2009; righe 28, parole 409)
