Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - On Saturday June 9, the feast day of Saint Ephraim, a great doctor of the Syrian Church, the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI visited the Congregation for the Oriental Churches where he was welcomed by the outgoing prefect His Beatitude Cardinal Ignace Moussa I Daoud. In his address the Pope spoke of the origin and history of the Congregation founded by his predecessor Pope Benedict XV ninety years ago. These decades were marked by a dramatic period of history especially in Eastern Europe, and confirmed “the providential nature of that papal act to ensure eastern Catholics, through a specific Congregation, the care of the Church which accompanied many of them during no brief times of persecution. After the silence came the time of liberation and the life and mission of the Church could resume, develop and be consolidated”.
After thanking the Lord for the designs of his divine goodness, Pope Benedict XVI said: “As Father and Shepherd I feel the duty to raise up a fervid prayer to God and to make a heartfelt appeal to all those responsible so that everywhere, from the East to the West, Churches may profess the Christian faith in full freedom. May the sons and daughters of the Church everywhere be allowed to live in personal and social tranquillity: may they be guaranteed dignity, respect and a future for individuals and groups, and respect for their rights as believers and citizens. From my lips I raise a heartfelt invocation for the Holy Land, Iraq, Lebanon, all territories under the jurisdiction of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, and also for the other regions involved in a vortex of apparently inexorable violence. May the Churches and the disciples of the Lord remain where they were placed by birth by Divine Providence; where they deserve to remain for a presence which dates to the very beginning of Christianity. During the centuries they distinguished themselves for unswerving and inseparable love for their faith, their people and their homeland.”
With his visit Pope Benedict XVI said he wished symbolically to continue “the pilgrimage to the heart of the East which Pope John Paul II proposed in the Apostolic Letter Orientale lumen”, ideally started when he assumed the name of a Pope who so loved the East and opening officially his Petrine Service of the Bishop of Tome at the tomb of the Apostle calling to be with him the Eastern Patriarchs in communion with the Successor of Peter; lastly he mentioned “the apostolic journey to Turkey, unforgettable for the moving embrace with the Catholic community and for its ecumenical and interreligious importance, constituted another moment of special fecundity in my pilgrimage to the heart of the East”.
The Pope then thanked “the many Eastern Catholics who paid their fidelity with their blood, recorded in admirable pages through the centuries down to the present day martyrology!”, assuring them that he is “at their side” and reaffirming “high esteem for the Catholic Eastern Churches for their singular role as living witnesses of the origins”: “Without constant relations with the traditions of the origins there can be no future for the Church of Christ. Particularly the Eastern Churches safeguard the echo of the first proclamation of the Gospel; the most ancient memories of the signs worked by the Lord; the first reflections of that Easter light and the reverberation of the unquenchable fire of Pentecost”. The Holy Father said: “We have almost everything in common and above all we have in common a sincere longing for unity. The desire in the depths of our hearts that this longing may soon reach full realisation.”
After praising and encouraging the Congregation for its dedicated service, Pope Benedict XVI underlined the “irreversibility of the ecumenical option and the mandatory nature of encounter at the inter-religious level”. He affirmed “the priority of formation is very dear to the Pope and also the updating of pastoral care for the family, youth, vocations and the valorisation of pastoral care of culture and charity. There must be continual growth of the movement of charity which, by papal mandate, the Congregation follows to ensure that Catholics in the Holy Land and the other Eastern regions receive the necessary spiritual and material support for ordinary ecclesial life and special necessities. An intelligent effort must be made to face the serious phenomenon of migrations, which often robs communities of the best human resources ”.
The Pope ended by announcing that he had appointed as new prefect of the Congregation for Oriental Churches Archbishop Leonardo Sandri, until now substitute for general affairs of the Secretariat of State. Thanking Cardinal Ignace Moussa I Daoud for working with “generous dedication at a very sensitive task”, Benedict XVI expressed warm wishes to the new Prefect “for a fruitful development of the sensitive tasks with which I entrust you with this appointment”, he also announced that to take the place of Archbishop Sandri in the Secretariat of State he has called Archbishop Fernando Filoni, at present Apostolic Nuncio in the Philippines. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 11/6/2007, righe 61, parole 855)
