VATICAN - “Benedict XVI goes to Assisi to announce with St Francis the simplicity of the Gospel in a complex world”. Tomorrow Fides will publish an ample contribution by Fr. Pietro Messa

Thursday, 14 June 2007

Rome (Agenzia Fides) - On Sunday 17 June the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI will make a pastoral visit to Assisi on the occasion of the 800th anniversary of the conversion of Saint Francis. Tomorrow Fides will publish an ample contribution by Fr. Pietro Messa, OFM, headmaster of the School for Medieval and Franciscan Studies of the Pontifical Antonianum College in Rome, of which we give two passages:
“Now Pope Benedict XVI goes to Assisi, not for an interreligious meeting, as John Paul II did from 1986 for no less than three times, but on the occasion of the eight centenary of Saint Francis' conversion to Jesus. This difference compared to his Predecessor is no minor one, and yet in Assisi there is an encounter precisely between conversion and dialogue, membership of the Roman Catholic Church and ecumenism, Christian identity and interreligious dialogue”.
“Precisely this dialectic between missionary announcement and dialogue, whose solution is so determinant for the present ecclesial and historical moment and whose consequences will in a sense by decisive for the future, renders Benedict's journey to Assisi most important for understanding not only his magisterium but also what the Spirit is saying today to the Church ”. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 14/6/2007; righe 15, parole 193)


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