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Papal visit to Armenian Apostolic Patriarchate - Pope's words

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  • Papal visit to Armenian Apostolic Patriarchate - Pope's words

    Spero News
    Dec 1 2006


    Papal visit to Armenian Apostolic Patriarchate

    The tragic divisions which, over time, have arisen among Christ's
    followers openly contradict the Lord's will, give scandal to the
    world and damage that most holy cause, the preaching of the Gospel to
    every creature

    Friday, December 01, 2006
    by Spero News

    Dear Brother in Christ,

    I am pleased to have this opportunity to meet Your Beatitude in this
    very place where Patriarch Kalustian welcomed my predecessors Pope
    Paul VI and Pope John Paul II. With great affection I greet the
    entire Armenian Apostolic community over which you preside as
    shepherd and spiritual father. My fraternal greeting goes also to His
    Holiness Karekin II, Catholicos of Holy Etchmiadzin, and the
    hierarchy of the Armenian Apostolic Church. I give thanks to God for
    the Christian faith and witness of the Armenian people, transmitted
    from one generation to the next, often in very tragic circumstances
    such as those experienced in the last century.

    Our meeting is more than a simple gesture of ecumenical courtesy and
    friendship. It is a sign of our shared hope in God's promises and our
    desire to see fulfilled the prayer that Jesus offered for his
    disciples on the eve of his suffering and death: `that they may all
    be one. As you, Father, are in me and I in you, may they also be one
    in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me' (Jn
    17:21). Jesus gave his life on the Cross to gather into one the
    dispersed children of God, to break down the walls of division.
    Through the sacrament of Baptism, we have been incorporated into the
    Body of Christ, the Church. The tragic divisions which, over time,
    have arisen among Christ's followers openly contradict the Lord's
    will, give scandal to the world and damage that most holy cause, the
    preaching of the Gospel to every creature (cf. Unitatis
    Redintegratio, 1). Precisely by the witness of their faith and love,
    Christians are called to offer a radiant sign of hope and consolation
    to this world, so marked by conflicts and tensions. We must continue
    therefore to do everything possible to heal the wounds of separation
    and to hasten the work of rebuilding Christian unity. May we be
    guided in this urgent task by the light and strength of the Holy
    Spirit.

    In this respect I can only offer heartfelt thanks to the Lord for the
    deeper fraternal relationship that has developed between the Armenian
    Apostolic Church and the Catholic Church. In the thirteenth century,
    Nerses of Lambron, one of the great Doctors of the Armenian Church,
    wrote these words of encouragement: `Now, since we all need peace
    with God, let its foundation be harmony among the brethren. We have
    prayed to God for peace and continue to do so. Look, he is now giving
    it to us as a gift: let us welcome it! We asked the Lord to make his
    holy Church solid, and he has willingly heard our plea. Let us climb
    therefore the mountain of the Gospel faith!' (Il Primato della
    Carità, Ed. Qiqajon, p. 81). These words of Nerses have lost nothing
    of their power. Together let us continue to pray for the unity of all
    Christians, so that, by receiving this gift from above with open
    hearts, we may be ever more convincing witnesses of the truth of the
    Gospel and better servants of the Church's mission.

    http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?idCat egory=33&idsub=128&id=6858&t=Papal+vis it+to+Armenian+Apostolic+Patriarchate
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