Pope invites Christians of all
denominations to be instruments of peace
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| Pope Francis participates in an ecumenical prayer service on 31 October 2016.(Vatican Media) |
Amongst those received in audience by Pope Francis at the
end of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity was the Finnish Ecumenical
Delegation.
By Linda Bordoni
Pope Francis has thanked the Lutheran
Catholic Dialogue Commission for Finland for a recently issued
ecumenical document.
The Pope was receiving in audience the Finnish Ecumenical
Delegation as the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity drew to
an end on Thursday, 25 January.
As per tradition, in the evening of January 25th,
on the Solemnity of the Conversion of Saint Paul, Francis presides over the
celebration of Vespers in the Basilica of St. Paul outside the Walls.
Various Christian denominations participate in the celebration
that marks the close of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity which unfolded
this year, under the theme: "Your Right Hand, O Lord, Glorious in
Power."
mportant ecumenical document
To the Ecumenical Delegation Pope Francis said the document
for which he is grateful, contains ecclesiological implications that must be
part of the agenda of ecumenical dialogues.
It is entitled: “Communion in Growth. Declaration on the
Church, Eucharist and Ministry”, and Francis noted that it reflects decisive
issues to which ecumenical dialogue can and must now turn its attention.
Joint commemoration of the Reformation
He looked back “with joy on this past year’s joint
commemoration of the Reformation, which, he said, strengthened and deepened, in
our Lord Jesus Christ, the communion between Lutherans and Catholics and their
ecumenical partners throughout the world”.
The Pope described the joint commemoration as a “fruitful
opportunity” and a “point of departure in the ecumenical quest for full and
visible unity between Christians, under the threefold sign of gratitude,
repentance and hope, all three of which, he said, are indispensable if we truly
desire to heal our memory”.
Service to society
He said that in increasingly secularized societies “our
service to ecumenism consists in bearing witness to the presence of the living
God” and that it is all or our duties to come to the aid of those in need
“united by our shared ecumenical commitment” and acting as instruments of
peace.
May our Lord Jesus Christ, the Pope concluded, help us
Christians, amid divisions between peoples, to work together as witnesses and
servants of his healing and reconciling love, and in this way to sanctify and
glorify his name.
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