VATICAN - Pope John Paul II: “the unity we search for is first of all a gift of God. We are aware however that to hasten the hour of its full realisation depends also on us, on our prayer, our conversion to Christ.”

Wednesday, 30 June 2004

Vatican City (Fides Service) - At 6pm on Tuesday 29 June, feast of Saints Peter and Paul, Pope John Paul II, with the participation of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, celebrated the Eucharist in St Peter’s Square. The celebration took place forty years after the history making embrace between Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I in Jerusalem in January 1964. The Ecumenical Patriarch was welcomed by the Holy Father inside the Basilica and together they moved in procession to the Altar. After the proclamation of the Gospel in Latin and Greek the Holy Father presented the Patriarch to the assembly introducing his address which was followed by the Pope’s homily. There followed in Greek the Profession of Faith, the Nicea- Constantinople Creed, as in the liturgy of the Byzantine Churches. During the Mass the Pope blessed and imposed the Pallium - taken from the Tomb of St Peter - on the shoulders of 44 new metropolitan Archbishops from all over the world. Eight other Archbishops will receive their Pallium in their See.
“Today we concentrate our attention on the happy 40th anniversary of the encounter- in 1964 - of our Predecessors of venerable memory in Jerusalem, a meeting which ended the path of our reciprocal moving away from each other and marked the beginning of a new journey bringing our two Churches close again - the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I said - On this new journey many steps towards reciprocal coming together have been made. There has been dialogue, meetings have taken place, letters have been exchanged, but we have not yet reached the desired destination. It has not been possible to eliminate in forty years the counter-positions which accumulated in nine hundred years. Hope, which walks with faith and love which always hopes, is one of God’s most important gifts. We too hope that what has not been possible so far will one day be obtained and, we hope, in the near future. Perhaps it will be in the distant future but our expectation and our love are not constricted within brief temporal limits. Our presence here today expresses very clearly our sincere desire to remove all the ecclesial obstacles, neither dogmatic nor essential, so that our attention may concentrate on the study of essential differences and dogmatic truths which still today separate our Churches and also the manner of living Christian truth of the united Church.”
Pope John Paul II recalled that “the encounter today is not an act of courtesy, is it an answer to the Lord’s command. Christ is the Head of the Church and together we want to do everything humanly possible to fill the gap with still separates us and prevents us from communication with the same Body and Blood of the Lord.” Recalling the historical meeting 40 years ago the Pope exclaimed: “That meeting cannot be only a memory. It is a challenge for us! It points to the path of reciprocal rediscovery and reconciliation. A path certainly neither easy nor free of obstacles. In the moving gesture of our predecessors in Jerusalem, we can find the strength to overcome all misunderstanding and difficulty ad consecrate ourselves unceasingly to this commitment for unity.”
Then Pope John Paul II urged all Christians to intensify their efforts on all sides “to hasten the day in which the Lord’s desire will be fully realised to the full”, and he recalled: “the unity we search for is first of all a gift of God. We are aware however that to hasten the hour of its full realisation depends also on us, on our prayer, our conversion to Christ.” (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 39/6/2004; Righe 43; Parole 614)


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