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Published by
Zenit.org,
January 11, 2005
Pope Invites Eastern Catholics to Reach Out
to Orthodox
Attendees at Interpatriarchal Synod Hear
Plea |
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VATICAN CITY, JAN. 11, 2005 (Zenit.org).- John
Paul II encouraged Eastern-rite Catholics to
promote contacts with Orthodox Churches to help
overcome the millennium-long schism.
The Pope's words were heard today by 150
participants in the Interpatriarchal Synod of the
three Catholic Byzantine ecclesiastical
circumscriptions in Italy: the Lungo and Piana
degli Albanesi eparchies, and the exarchal
Monastery of Santa Maria di Grottaferrata.
"I encourage you to continue contacts, thanks to a
common liturgical tradition, with the Orthodox
Churches desirous also of giving glory to the one
God and Savior," the Holy Father said.
"May the Almighty Lord, who in the Christmas just
lived through revealed his divine tenderness in
the luminous incarnation of the Word, allow all
believers in Christ to live fully the unity of the
same faith," he said.
The 2nd Interpatriarchal Synod is being held in
three sessions: the first two took place last
October and November. The third is taking place
through Friday.
The synod is focusing on "Communion and
Proclamation of the Gospel." Its organizers told
ZENIT in a statement that the synod hopes to
"respond to the urgent need of the pastoral
program of new evangelization, which has its
center in Jesus Christ, dead and resurrected, for
the salvation of every man."
The Italian-Byzantine Monastery of Santa Maria of
Grottaferrata, some 20 kilometers (12 miles) from
Rome, is under the Holy See. It was founded in
1004 by St. Nilus, sometimes called "the Younger"
or "of Rossano," a half-century before the
division of the Catholic Church and the Orthodox.
For 1,000 years this monastery has witnessed with
daily prayer to the unity of the Church in its
multiple traditions of spirituality and culture.
It is a place of meeting and dialogue between the
Latin West and the Orthodox East, open to those
who wish to live and study Byzantine spirituality.
1940 was the year of the first synod of the two
eparchies (equivalent to dioceses) of Eastern-rite
Catholics who arrived in the Italian peninsula and
its islands in the 15th century, after the Ottoman
occupation of Albania, Greece and the Balkans.
"Heirs of a common spiritual heritage, these
ecclesial realities of yours are called to witness
to the unity of the same faith in different social
contexts," the Pope said. "They collaborate from
the pastoral point of view with the communities of
the Latin tradition and increasingly reinforce
their identity, taking advantage of their
millennial Byzantine tradition."
John Paul II encouraged Eastern-rite Catholics in
Italy to preserve their tradition through "solid
formation, … able to respond in an effective
manner to the growing challenges of
secularization."
In the presence of Cardinal Ignace Moussa I Daoud,
prefect of the Congregation for Eastern Churches,
the Holy Father said that the Holy See will "not
cease to give them its support."
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