Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Madrid (Agenzia Fides) - “Christ illuminates us all” is the title of a Message addressed to all Christians in Spain by the Catholic Bishops Conference in view of the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. In the message the Bishops say “All the main ecclesial communities today aspire to recognise one another as "sister churches", and we must do our best to hasten the time when all Christian Churches recognise each other as one communion in faith and one ecclesial reality”. The message is issued by the Bishops’ Commission for Inter-confessional Relations.
“We must not be discouraged although the path is still long” the Bishops write, recalling that to achieve this unity it is necessary to be guided by the Holy Spirit in every moment of history. "We will move forward to unity - the message says - of Christians are united in the mission entrusted by Christ: the evangelisation of the world".
Mentioning the 3rd Ecumenical Meeting of European Churches in Rumania in September this year with the theme "Christ the light who illuminate us all, hope for renewal and unity in Europe", the Bishops express the hope that the meeting will be "an experience of grace to intensify communion among the Churches of Europe and greater efforts for new evangelisation" to help the Christians of Europe face the common challenges of the present day: “so that Christ may continue to illuminate the life of the peoples who have met Him and have walked in His light."
The Bishops remark on the happy encounter between Pope Benedict XVI and Patriarch Bartholomew I, during the Pope’s recent visit to Turkey, which “intensified communion among Catholics and Orthodox Christians and will surely foster deeper communion among all Christians". They say they hope the fruits of this dialogue will "lead these two great Churches back to the communion shared in the first millennium of Christianity ". The Spanish Bishops conclude by underlining that the path to unity is holiness: "Ecumenism of Holiness is the most effective of all. Only through obedience to the will of the Father the action of Christians in the world will bear fruit". (RG) (Agenzia Fides 17/1/2007; righe 29, parole 385)
