Pope Benedict XVI received participants of the plenary session of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity

According to the Holy Father, the proposed theme fits very well into the context of the Year of Faith, marking the fiftieth anniversary of the Second Vatican Council.  “As is known,” he said, “the fathers of the council understand well the tight connection which exists with the objective of evangelization and overcoming the divisions among Christians,” since such a division as we read in the decree on ecumenism Unitatis redintegratio,  “contradicts Christ’s will” and harms “the sacred cause of  bringing the Gospel to every being.”

“It is impossible to step onto the real ecumenical path, without taking into account the crisis of faith which has encompassed significant areas of the planet, even among them, those who first received the message of the Gospel and where the Christian faith bloomed throughout centuries,” emphasized Benedict XVI, adding that one may also not ignore “multiple signs which substantiate the continuous existence of the need for spirituality that expresses itself in different manners,” and constitutes a challenge to all Christians.

“Within this context,” notes the Pope, “it is required that we who believe in Christ revert to the essential, to the heart of our faith, in order to together provide the world with witnessing of the living God, that is, that God who knows and loves us, under whose glance we live and who awaits our response to love.”  In order to do this, we must remember what unites us and that is “faith in God the Father and Creator, who manifested Himself in His Son Jesus Christ, finding expression in the Holy Spirit who enlivens and blesses.”  And this faith, in the light of that same Baptism, we can confess together.

“However, we cannot forget that the goal of ecumenism is a visible unity among divided Christians,” continued the Holy Father, reminding that this unity is not something we can achieve only with human efforts.  “We should devote all our energies to this,” explained he,   “but we have to admit that in the final analysis this unity is a gift from God and can only come from the Father through the Son, because the Church is His Church.”  In this context the importance of praying for unity emerges and the significance of searching for it for the new evangelization.  And even the mere fact of “aiming together towards this goal is a positive reality, yet with the condition that the Church and the church communities will not stop walking down this road.”  Since it is exactly in the “full communion of faith, Holy Sacraments and service by concrete actions that the presence and activity of God’s power in the world will become obvious.”

“Real ecumenism,” concluded Benedict XVI, “recognizing the primacy of God’s acts, demands first of all patience, humility and submission to God’s will.  Finally, both ecumenism and the new evangelization demand the dynamics of conversion.”

As was reported, during the session of the Council, His Beatitude Sviatoslav (Shevchuk) in his presentation stated that a dialogue and development of ecumenical relations with Ukrainian Orthodoxy is a pastoral imperative.

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