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| MESSAGGIO DEL
SANTO PADRE AI PARTECIPANTI AL PRIMO CONGRESSO DEI CATTOLICI LAICI
DELL’EUROPA DELL’EST (KYIV, UCRAINA, 8-12 OTTOBRE 2003),
13.10.2003 |
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Pubblichiamo di seguito il Messaggio
che il Santo Padre Giovanni Paolo II ha inviato ai partecipanti
al primo Congresso dei Cattolici Laici dell’Europa dell’Est,
organizzato dal Pontificio Consiglio per i Laici, che si è
tenuto a Kyiv, in Ucraina, dall’8 al 12 ottobre 2003:
TRADUZIONE IN LINGUA INGLESE
1. I extend my greetings of peace to all of you – Cardinals,
Venerable Brother Bishops, beloved priests, men and women religious,
and lay faithful – who have gathered in Kyiv from different
Countries, and not without sacrifice, in order to take part in the
Congress of Catholic Laity of Eastern Europe. You have come to this
meeting inspired by the same hope that sustains your Churches: Churches
of heroes and martyrs, which amidst tribulations, and often to the
point of shedding blood, have persevered in faithfulness to Christ
the one Lord, in fidelity to the Catholic Church, in affirming the
values of truth.
A special word of greeting and thanks goes to Cardinals Lubomyr
Husar and Marian Jaworski, without whose precious support this Congress
could not have taken place. My gratitude goes also to the Church
in the Ukraine — which the Lord allowed me to visit two years
ago during the month of June, and of which the memories remain vividly
etched in my mind — for agreeing to host such a significant
event. I congratulate Cardinal James Stafford for this exciting
initiative of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, which is a cause
of great satisfaction for me.
2. The harsh legacy of atheistic totalitarian regimes, which have
left emptiness and deep scars on consciences, requires that the
countries of Eastern Europe take up today the hard work of proceeding
with religious, moral and civil reconstruction; of strengthening
refound sovereignty, freedom and democracy; of mending the economy.
On the difficult road that your Nations will have to set out upon
in order to take renewed possession of their history and cultural
dignity, you, the Christian lay faithful, have an irreplaceable
role of fundamental importance. The Lord asks you who have been
stalwart witnesses of faith in times of trial and persecution, and
in the time that has now seen you regain religious freedom, to prepare
the soil for a vigorous rebirth of the Church in your Countries.
After long decades of painful separation, which has caused a kind
of asphyxia among the Christian communities of the East, Europe
can breathe once more with both its lungs, revealing great possibilities
for the spread of the Gospel.
3. An old Europe, from West to East, is looking for a new identity.
In this process, it must not forget its roots. Europe must remember
that Christianity has been the lifeblood from which it has drawn
the noblest inspirations of its spirit for two thousand years. As
I wrote in my Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in Europa:
"European culture gives the impression of ‘silent apostasy’
on the part of people who have all that they need and live as if
God does not exist" (No. 9). And yet there is no lack of encouraging
signs of "a great springtime for Christianity" (Redemptoris
Missio, 86), which can be seen also in the contexts of your Churches.
The full blossoming of this springtime, however, will depend on
the indispensable contribution of the lay faithful, who are called
to make Christ’s Church present in the world by proclaiming
and serving the Gospel of hope (cf. Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation
Ecclesia in Europe, 41).
The theme of your Congress — "Being witnesses of Christ
today" — expresses well the meaning of this mission,
which none of the Baptized can delegate to others or avoid. To you,
gathered in this marvellous city of Kyiv that witnessed the Baptism
of the ancient Rus’, is entrusted the responsibility of passing
on to future generations the heritage of Christian faith. This will
be possible to the extent that each of you is able to strengthen
the awareness of your own Baptism. The sacrament of Baptism makes
us children of God called to holiness, members of the Church —
the Mystical Body of Christ — with a shared responsibility
for building up the Christian community, participants in the Church’s
mission of announcing to men and women the Good News of salvation.
The rediscovery of the baptismal dignity of the laity and of their
responsibility in the Church’s mission is one of the fruits
of the Second Vatican Council. For this reason, to you who are gathered
in Kyiv I repeat the words that I spoke to the faithful who had
assembled in Rome in the year 2000 to celebrate the Jubilee of the
Apostolate of the Laity: "We must return to the Council. We
must once again take the documents of the Second Vatican Council
in hand to rediscover the great wealth of its doctrinal and pastoral
motives. In particular, you lay people must again take those documents
in hand. To you the Council opened extraordinary perspectives of
commitment and involvement in the Church’s mission" (Homily
at the Mass for the Jubilee of the Apostolate of the Laity, St.
Peter’s Square, 26 November 2000, 3). The Council has made
this the hour of the laity in the Church!
Your vocation and mission will bear fruit provided that, in your
actions, you are able always to make a return to Christ, to set
out from Christ, to keep your gaze fixed firmly on Christ’s
face. "You are the salt of the earth . . . You are the light
of the world" (Mt 5:13,14): the Lord speaks these words to
each of you. Let his light shine in your personal lives, in your
families, in your workplaces, in the world of education, culture
and politics, in every sector where people work for peace and for
the building of a social order that is of a more human dimension
and that respects the inalienable dignity of men and women.
4. For the laity, this is a time of hope and courage! The Church
needs you and knows that she can entrust great responsibilities
to you. I therefore thank your Bishops, priests and religious for
the commitment that they have demonstrated up to the present in
the formation of mature Christians rooted in the faith. Expressing
my gratitude to them, I urge them to continue this work, aiming
at a systematic catechesis formulated for different age groups and
for different situations and conditions of life. I encourage them
especially to invest energy and means in the human and Christian
formation of the younger generations, the hope of the Church and
the future of mankind. A precious contribution in this regard can
be made by associations, church movements and new communities, the
experience of which has given birth to fruitful pedagogical paths
and a renewed apostolic enthusiasm.
Dear lay faithful, do not be discouraged as you face the challenges
of our day! Draw strength from the example and intercession of the
martyrs, whose witness is the "supreme incarnation of the Gospel
of hope" (Ecclesia in Europa, 13). Make your families true
domestic Churches and your parishes true schools of prayer and Christian
life. You have regained freedom at the price of great suffering;
do not let it ever devolve into the pursuit of false ideals suggested
by the utilitarianism, individualistic hedonism or unrestrained
consumerism that characterize so much of modern culture. Preserve
your rich Christian traditions, resisting the insidious temptation
to exclude God from your lives or to reduce faith to gestures and
sporadic, superficial occurrences. You are "new" men and
women. May your eyes, firmly set on reality, be illuminated by faith
and by the teaching of the Church.
5. There should be due consideration in your Churches for the need
to promote "a spirituality of communion, making it the guiding
principle of education wherever individuals and Christians are formed"
(Novo Millennio Ineunte, 43). This should be the case in your Dioceses,
parishes, families and societies. Such a spirituality calls us in
a special way to a renewed ecumenical commitment. The lay faithful,
with a proper formation and always in respect of freedom, in brotherly
love, in dialogue and in cooperation, can open new paths to Christian
unity, which is a "walking together towards Christ". Here
too I would like to recall the example of the martyrs, whose witness
has become the common heritage of the different Christian Churches
and speaks louder than those things that bring division (cf. Tertio
Millennio Adveniente, 37). You too are called to bear witness to
Christ together with all our Christian brothers and sisters, wherever
you may live and in whatever projects you may undertake in cooperation
with them. The love of Christ heals wounds, overcomes prejudices,
prepares the paths of unity. Pray unceasingly so that what seems
impossible by the standards of human logic will be made possible
by God, who offers his powerful assistance. Bing to fulfilment the
commandment of his Son: "Ut unum sint" (Jn 17:21).
6. In my ministry as Successor of Peter, as a pilgrim in the world,
God has allowed me to visit some of your Countries. Those extraordinary
experiences of a joyful welcome and cordial hospitality, of faith
and devotion are vividly etched in my mind. Providence alone knows
whether I shall be able to continue my pastoral pilgrimages in your
blessed lands. Today I embrace you and, together with you, all the
peoples, Nations and Christian communities to which you belong.
I entrust all of you to Mary, Mother of the Church and Help of Christians.
We turn to her with special devotion in this year dedicated to the
Rosary. May the Virgin intercede with her Son so that his grace
will nourish and sustain the rebirth of your Churches and your Countries.
Expressing the hope that the Congress of Catholic Laity of Eastern
Europe will bear the abundant fruits of a renewed commitment to
the cause of Christ, I cordially send my special blessing to all
the participants and willingly extend it to your loved ones and
to all whom you will meet on your path as disciples of Christ.
From the Vatican, 4 October 2003
IOANNES PAULUS II
[Original text: Ucraino] |
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