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Saturday, September 03,
2011 10:27 PM
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Eric
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Article of interest....
Pope urges Catholic-Orthodox
cooperation on new evangelization
By David Kerr
Vatican City, Sep 2, 2011 / 12:34 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI
is encouraging Catholic and Orthodox Christians to work together in
re-evangelizing traditionally Christian countries.
“For a renewed proclamation
of the Gospel in the modern world we need evangelizers animated by the same
apostolic zeal of (Saint) Paul,” the Pope said in a letter to mark the close of
the twelfth Inter-Christian Symposium.
Over the past four days, the
symposium has brought together both Catholic and Orthodox scholars in the Greek
city of Thessaloniki to discuss the topic of “The witness of the Church in the
Modern World.” The Pope described the theme as “very timely and central” to his
“concerns and prayers” for a “new evangelization” of traditionally Christian
countries where the practice of the Christian faith has declined in recent
times.
Pope Benedict noted that although the Church has never ceased to
“proclaim the salvific mystery of the death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ,” the regions in need of re-evangelization are
“currently experiencing the effects of a secularization
capable of impoverishing the most profound aspects of man.”
People living in these
regions seem to give a “contradictory” response to the Christian Gospel, the
Pope said. On the one hand, “there is widespread disinterest, even a lack of
sensibility” towards transcendent things, and on the
other hand there seems to be “a profound nostalgia for God” that “persists in
the hearts of many, expressing itself in various ways.”
Christianity was brought to the city of Thessaloniki by St. Paul in the
first century. The Pope asked for his intercession that the talks between the
Orthodox and Catholic Churches encourage “a climate of fraternal charity,” and
observed that the “mutual understanding of our traditions and true friendship
are already in themselves a contribution to the cause of Christian unity.”
Pope Benedict also pointed
out that the current cultural, social and economic environment “presents the
same challenges to both Catholics and Orthodox.” Instead of divisions, these
challenges should call forth a Christian evangelizers
who are “mature in faith and
capable of finding a meeting point beyond the real tensions,” he said,
quoting Pope Paul VI.
The Inter-Christian Symposium is co-organized by the Franciscan
Institute of Spirituality at Rome’s Pontifical Antonianum
University and the Orthodox faculty of theology at the Aristotle University of
Thessaloniki. The initiative hopes to help heal the rift between the Catholic
and Orthodox Churches which has persisted since the 11th century.