Pope Benedict XVI Blog

Pain of not being able to concelebrate eucharist should spur on Catholic and Orthodox unity

Date: 2005-09-05

Pope Sees Pain of Eucharistic Split as a Goad Toward Unity

In Message to Symposium of Catholic and Orthodox Theologians

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy, SEPT. 5, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI believes that the suffering borne by Orthodox and Catholics because they can't concelebrate the Eucharist together, should be the goad that prompts them to reach full unity.

The Pope makes that proposal in a message sent to the inter-Christian symposium on "The Eucharist in the Eastern and Western Tradition with Particular Reference to Ecumenical Dialogue," being held in Assisi, Italy, through Wednesday.

The four-day initiative is organized by the Institute of Spirituality of the Pontifical University Antonianum of Rome and the Department of Theology of the Aristotle University of Thessalonica, Greece.

In the message, addressed to Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, the Pope says that "[s]een as particularly urgent in our time is the search for full visible unity among all the disciples of Christ and for this reason, there is a need for a more profound spirituality of greater reciprocal love."

After recalling "with how much love Eastern Christians celebrate liturgical worship, above all the Eucharistic celebration," the Holy Father acknowledges that the "absence of full communion does not allow, unfortunately, the concelebration that for both is the sign of that full unity to which we are all called."

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posted by Dr. Denice Hanley, DPM, M.Div. @ 10:49 AM