A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY
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| Volume 7 Number 45 - Tuesday, November 15, 2005 |
A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY |
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The Orthodox Christian Laity
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The Orthodox Christian News Service |
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The Holy Father met on November 12 with the Bulgarian
bishops, who were making the ad limina visits. He
urged them to maintain the spiritual vigor of the
country's Catholic minority, and to involve
themselves in the social problems of Bulgarian
society, such as the declining birth rate, family
breakdown, and the prevalence of abortion. The Pope observed that despite its small size, the Catholic
community in Bulgaria appears healthy and active,
evidently because "the Lord always knows how
to compensate for any of our shortcomings."
He also paid tribute to the Catholic bishops for
keeping up friendly relations with their Orthodox
neighbors, and conveyed his fraternal greetings to
the Bulgarian Orthodox Patriarch Maxim. He urged
all Christians to pray for the day "when we
can all sit around the one table and eat the one
Bread of salvation." After "the sad
period of Communist oppression," the
Catholics who endured oppression under that
atheistic regime now feel the need to "spread
the Gospel in all areas of social life," the
Pope said. He mentioned the problems of birth
rate, abortions, and family breakdown, as well as
emigration and poverty, and encouraged the
Catholics bringing Gospel principles into play on
those issues. Catholics represent less than 1 percent of Bulgaria's 8
million people. The Orthodox account for 87
percent, with Muslims accounting for most of the
remainder. There are three Catholic dioceses, one
of the Eastern Church.
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