Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - On Sunday 21 January, in the middle of the "Week of Prayer for Christian Unity", before leading from his study window the recitation of the midday Angelus prayer with the crowds gathered in St Peter’s Square Pope Benedict XVI mentioned the theme of the Week this year 2007 - “He even makes the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak!” (Mk 7,37) - and said he would comment on it during Ecumenical Vespers on 25 January in St Paul’s outside the Walls to close the week. “I hope you will come in large numbers to that liturgical encounter - the Pope said - because unity is achieved mainly through prayer, and the more prayer is in unison, the more it is pleasing to the Lord”.
The Pope recalled that the Week this year was planned by Christians in Umlazi, South Africa, “a very poor town where AIDS has assumed the proportions of a pandemic and human hopes are few”. “But the Risen Christ is hope for all - the Holy Father said -. And especially for Christians… Christ can do everything "He even makes the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak " (Mk 7,37), he can fill Christians with an ardent desire to listen to others, communicate with others and to speak together with others the language of reciprocal love”.
“The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity reminds us that ecumenism is a profound dialogical experience, listening and speaking to one another, getting to know one other better; this is a task for everyone, especially spiritual ecumenism based on prayer and sharing among Christians as far as this is possible at the moment”. The Pope expressed the hope that "the desire for unity, translated into prayer and fraternal collaboration to alleviate man's suffering, may become ever more widespread." He also thanked all the people who, "all over the world, pray and work for unity with conviction and constancy."
After the Marian prayer, Pope Benedict XVI greeted Catholic school children and parents and teachers gathered in the square to receive his blessing on the occasion of the Diocesan Day for Catholic Schools. “Catholic schools are at the service of the integral development of the person” expressing his appreciation for their activity “striving always to combine quality instruction with commitment to education”. Finally he greeted and lauded a "Cambia gioco", programme in the Italian city of Lecce encouraging children not to play with toy weapons, stressing the need to “protect childhood from being infected by violence!” (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 22/1/2007; righe 31, parole 445)
