Pope Francis: Message to mark 100 years of PIO
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| Pontifical Oriental Institute, file photo. |
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has sent a
Message to the Grand Chancellor of the Pontifical Oriental Institute,
Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, who is also the Prefect of the Congregation
for Oriental Churches.
The Pontificium Institutum Orientale, or
“Orientale” as it is known in Roman shorthand, was founded in 1917 by Pope
Benedict XV, and became part of the “Gregorian Consortium” including also the
University and the Biblical Institute, under the direction and tutelage of the
Society of Jesus.
In his Message, Pope Francis makes note of the high
achievements in the twofold mission of research into liturgical, theological,
ecclesiological, and spiritual sources of the Christian East, and the
preparation of instruments by which to make the riches of the Eastern
Christianity more readily available and accessible to Christians in the West.
The Pope also calls on the Orientale to
mindfulness of and solicitude for the enormous challenges facing Christians in
the East.
“Keeping intact the attention and application of traditional
research,” Pope Francis writes, “This Institute, through research, teaching and
testimony, has the task of helping our [Eastern] brothers and sisters to
strengthen and consolidate their faith in the face of the tremendous challenges
they face,” challenges which, in the present day, include strong temptations to
leave their native homelands, and often forced displacement under threat of
persecution and even martyrdom.
The Holy Father concludes his message, “In
joining myself to the thanksgivings to God for the work it has done over these
100 years, I hope that the Pontifical Oriental Institute will
pursue its mission with renewed impetus, studying and spreading with love and
intellectual honesty, with scientific rigor and pastoral perspective, the
traditions of the Oriental churches in their liturgical, theological, artistic
and canonical variety, better and better responding to the expectations of
today’s world to create a future of reconciliation and peace.”
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