Source: SIR
“Peace, so largely sought and awaited, is unfortunately still widely offended” in “vast areas of the Middle East”: it was said today by Benedict XVI as he spoke to card. Ignace Moussa I Daoud, emeritus prefect of the Congregation for the Eastern Churches, and to the delegates of the bodies that are members of Roaco (Association of bodies in aid of the Eastern Churches), gathered for their yearly meeting. Peace, he added, “is offended in the hearts of the individuals, and this impairs interpersonal and community relations. The weakness of peace is further aggravated by old and new injustices. Thus it dies down, paving the way to violence, which often degenerates into a more or less declared war and even becomes, as it is happening today, a worrisome international issue”.
“Peace, so largely sought and awaited, is unfortunately still widely offended” in “vast areas of the Middle East”: it was said today by Benedict XVI as he spoke to card. Ignace Moussa I Daoud, emeritus prefect of the Congregation for the Eastern Churches, and to the delegates of the bodies that are members of Roaco (Association of bodies in aid of the Eastern Churches), gathered for their yearly meeting. Peace, he added, “is offended in the hearts of the individuals, and this impairs interpersonal and community relations. The weakness of peace is further aggravated by old and new injustices. Thus it dies down, paving the way to violence, which often degenerates into a more or less declared war and even becomes, as it is happening today, a worrisome international issue”.
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“With each one of you – he explained –, feeling in communion with all the Churches and the Christian communities, as well as with those who worship the name of God and look for it with a sincere conscience, and all the men of good will, I wish to knock again on the heart of God, the Maker and Father, to ask Him, with immense confidence, the gift of peace”, as well as “on the heart of those who have specific responsibilities, that they may fulfil the serious duty of ensuring peace to everyone, without distinctions, freeing it of the deadly disease of religious, cultural, historical or geographical discrimination”.
With peace, exhorted Benedict XVI, “may all the earth find again its vocation and mission as a ‘common house’ for every people and nation, through the shared commitment of an ever-sincere and responsible dialogue”. In highlighting that the Holy Land, Iraq and Lebanon are “present with the urgency and constancy they deserve in the prayer and in the action of the Apostolic See and all the Church”, the Pope asked “the Congregation for the Eastern Churches and all its associates to confirm the same care, in order to increase the effectiveness of their sympathy and their actions for so many brothers and sisters of ours”, so that “they may feel, from now on, the comfort of ecclesial fraternity” and “may soon get a glimpse of the dawn of the days of peace”. As he renewed to the Chaldean Patriarch, who was attending the meeting, his condolence “for the savage murder of a helpless priest and three sub-deacons” on June 3rd in Iraq, the Holy Father highlighted that “the whole Church follows with affection and admiration all its sons and daughters and supports them at this time of true martyrdom for the name of Christ”. As to the work of Roaco, the Pontiff made the wish that “the irreplaceable contribution you make to the testimony of the ecclesial love may find its full development in the communitarian form of its practice”.
While “the delusion that one may work more effectively on their own is harmful”, the Holy Father highlighted that “the difficulty of confrontation and cooperation” is “clear evidence that it is not the individuals but it is rather the Church that gives what the Lord destined to everyone in His provident goodness”. Benedict XVI also spoke of the “irreversibility of the ecumenical choice” and the “inviolability of the inter-religious one”: “I am anxious to highlight, on this occasion – he said –, how much they feed on the movement of ecclesial love. Such choices are but expressions of the same love, the only love that can quicken the steps of dialogue and open unhoped-for horizons”. “As we implore the Lord – he added – that He may bring forward the day of the full unity of the Christians and the day, also much longed for, of the serene cohabitation of the religions, enlivened by a respectful mutuality, we plead Him to bless our efforts and to enlighten us, so that what we do will never diminish but actually improve the ecclesial community”: “May He – stated the Pope – make us always careful, so that, steering clear of any sort of indifferentism, in practising love we will never elude the mission of the local Catholic community”.
It is also through the involvement of the local community that “our ecumenical and inter-religious sensitivity – explained the Pope – will have to materialise”. However, according to the Pontiff, “the true source of the commitment to love is in prayer, and in it we will see its genuineness”. In Benedict XVI’s opinion, “the Eucharistic roots are essential to our action”: actually “it is the ‘Eucharistic standard’ that the prospects of the movement of the ecclesial love will have to build on: only that which does not contradict but actually finds itself again and feeds on the mystery of Eucharistic love and the view of the cosmos, of man and man’s history that ensues from it guarantees the genuineness of our giving and the firm foundation of our building”. In fact, added the Holy Father, “it is just the Eucharistic inspiration of our actions that will deeply concern man, who cannot live on bread alone, to announce him the food of eternal life, prepared by God in his Son Jesus Christ”. In concluding the hearing, the Pope renewed “his heart-felt gratitude to His Beatitude card. Ignace Moussa Daoud, who over these years has done his very utmost, not least as the president of Roaco. I give him a well-wishing greeting and I heartily extend it to the archbishop Leonardo Sandri, whom I called to succeed him at the helm of the Congregation”.
With peace, exhorted Benedict XVI, “may all the earth find again its vocation and mission as a ‘common house’ for every people and nation, through the shared commitment of an ever-sincere and responsible dialogue”. In highlighting that the Holy Land, Iraq and Lebanon are “present with the urgency and constancy they deserve in the prayer and in the action of the Apostolic See and all the Church”, the Pope asked “the Congregation for the Eastern Churches and all its associates to confirm the same care, in order to increase the effectiveness of their sympathy and their actions for so many brothers and sisters of ours”, so that “they may feel, from now on, the comfort of ecclesial fraternity” and “may soon get a glimpse of the dawn of the days of peace”. As he renewed to the Chaldean Patriarch, who was attending the meeting, his condolence “for the savage murder of a helpless priest and three sub-deacons” on June 3rd in Iraq, the Holy Father highlighted that “the whole Church follows with affection and admiration all its sons and daughters and supports them at this time of true martyrdom for the name of Christ”. As to the work of Roaco, the Pontiff made the wish that “the irreplaceable contribution you make to the testimony of the ecclesial love may find its full development in the communitarian form of its practice”.
While “the delusion that one may work more effectively on their own is harmful”, the Holy Father highlighted that “the difficulty of confrontation and cooperation” is “clear evidence that it is not the individuals but it is rather the Church that gives what the Lord destined to everyone in His provident goodness”. Benedict XVI also spoke of the “irreversibility of the ecumenical choice” and the “inviolability of the inter-religious one”: “I am anxious to highlight, on this occasion – he said –, how much they feed on the movement of ecclesial love. Such choices are but expressions of the same love, the only love that can quicken the steps of dialogue and open unhoped-for horizons”. “As we implore the Lord – he added – that He may bring forward the day of the full unity of the Christians and the day, also much longed for, of the serene cohabitation of the religions, enlivened by a respectful mutuality, we plead Him to bless our efforts and to enlighten us, so that what we do will never diminish but actually improve the ecclesial community”: “May He – stated the Pope – make us always careful, so that, steering clear of any sort of indifferentism, in practising love we will never elude the mission of the local Catholic community”.
It is also through the involvement of the local community that “our ecumenical and inter-religious sensitivity – explained the Pope – will have to materialise”. However, according to the Pontiff, “the true source of the commitment to love is in prayer, and in it we will see its genuineness”. In Benedict XVI’s opinion, “the Eucharistic roots are essential to our action”: actually “it is the ‘Eucharistic standard’ that the prospects of the movement of the ecclesial love will have to build on: only that which does not contradict but actually finds itself again and feeds on the mystery of Eucharistic love and the view of the cosmos, of man and man’s history that ensues from it guarantees the genuineness of our giving and the firm foundation of our building”. In fact, added the Holy Father, “it is just the Eucharistic inspiration of our actions that will deeply concern man, who cannot live on bread alone, to announce him the food of eternal life, prepared by God in his Son Jesus Christ”. In concluding the hearing, the Pope renewed “his heart-felt gratitude to His Beatitude card. Ignace Moussa Daoud, who over these years has done his very utmost, not least as the president of Roaco. I give him a well-wishing greeting and I heartily extend it to the archbishop Leonardo Sandri, whom I called to succeed him at the helm of the Congregation”.