VATICAN - Pope Benedict addresses participants at the annual Meeting of Aid Agencies for Eastern Catholic Churches: “Our first and fundamental task is to persevere in confident prayer to the Lord … in addition there must be brotherly concern able to fund new and unexpected ways to meet the needs of those people ”

Friday, 23 June 2006

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - “This meeting today gives me an opportunity to thank God for the apostolic work carried out in these years by the disciples of Christ in the Middle East committed, despite many difficulties, to bearing witness to the Gospel of peace and love with brotherly concern.”, Pope Benedict XVI on 22 June when he received 100 participants in the annual Meeting of Aid Agencies for the Eastern Catholic Churches (ROACO), thanking them for the service they have been carrying out since 1968, "supporting the pastoral, educational and charitable activities and meeting the urgent needs" of those Churches.
“I thank you for tireless efforts to safeguard the special profile of ecclesial charitable activity ” the Pope said with a special thought for the “venerable Eastern Catholic Communities and in the first place those in the Holy Land”. “It is the desire of all Christians to find in the land where our Redeemer was born a lively Christian community - the Pope continued. The serious problems it lives in a heavy climate of insecurity, lack of work and numerous restrictions with the ensuing growing poverty, are for all of us a reason of concern. It is a situation," he added, "that makes the educational, professional and family future of young generations extremely uncertain, unfortunately tempting them to leave forever the beloved land of their birth. This also happens in other areas of the Middle East, such as Iraq and Iran, which also benefit providentially from your generous kindness."
In order to face these serious problems, Pope Benedict went on, "our prime and fundamental duty is that of persistent and faithful prayer to the Lord, Who never abandons his children in times of trial. This should be associated with activities of fraternal solicitude, in order to find new and at times unexpected ways to meet the needs of those people."
"I invite pastors, faithful, and everyone in positions of responsibility in the civil community, to favour mutual respect between cultures and religions, and to create as soon as possible the conditions for serene and peaceful coexistence throughout the Middle East."
”. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 22/5/2006 - righe 24; parole 326)


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