VATICAN - The Pope’s teaching on the first day of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity: “brothers and sisters let us continue to pray because we know that the holy cause to re-establish unity among Christians is beyond our poor human capabilities and that definitively unity is a gift of God”

Vatican City (Fides Service) - During the General Audience this morning in the Paul VI Hall in the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI spoke about the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity which started today. This “important opportunity to reflect on the tragedy of the division within the Christian community and to pray with Jesus himself that «all may be one, that the world may believe»” the Pope explained, “involves in different forms, times and ways, Catholics Orthodox and Protestants united in faith in Jesus Christ, the only Lord and Saviour”. Pope Benedict XVI underlined that “prayer for unity is part of the central nucleus which Vatican II calls «the soul of the whole ecumenical movement» (Unitatis redintegratio, 8), nucleus which comprises public and private prayer, conversion of heart and holiness of life”. At the centre of the ecumenical question we find in fact “obedience to the Gospel in doing the will of God with his necessary and effective help”.
Referring once again to the Second Vatican Council’s decree on ecumenism, Pope Benedict XVI spoke of the “elements which despite permanent division still unite Christians, and enable them to raise a common prayer to God. This communion in Christ sustains the whole ecumenical movement and indicates the goal of the search for the unity of all Christians in the Church of God. This distinguishes the ecumenical movement from every other initiative of dialogue and relations with other religions and ideologies”. Common prayers said all over the world, at this time or also at Pentecost, express “a common will to work to re-establish full communion among all Christians”. Lastly the Holy Father invited those present to “thank the Lord for the new situation reached with great effort by ecumenical relations between Christians in newly found brotherhood, for bonds of solidarity established, for growth in communion and for points of convergence achieved - certainly in varying degrees- among different dialogues ”. Looking to the future Pope Benedict XVI ended his teaching with this call: “let us continue to pray because we know that the holy cause to re-establish unity among Christians is beyond our poor human capabilities and that definitively unity is a gift of God”. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 18/1/2006, righe 26, parole 377)