Cardinal Leonardo Sandri Emphasizes ‘Renewed Missionary Impulse
From the Year of Faith”
CAIRO, January 11, 2013 thansk to Zenit.org – Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect
of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, met with those responsible of
apostolic events in Egypt during his visit to the country to celebrate the Year
of Faith with the local Church. Cardinal Sandri spoke to the group in Cairo and
commended them on their faithfulness and commitment to the Catholic community
in Egypt.
“You are the ones who have made yourselves personally
available to serve the Church and you have received the ecclesial task of
committing yourselves, in faithfulness and constructive cooperation with
pastors, so that the life of the Catholic community in Egypt may know how to
efficiently announce the Son of God through sacramental life, catechesis, and charity—especially
in charitable aid, in education, and in the concrete and daily service of our
many brothers and sisters,” the cardinal said.
The Italian prelate commented on the current difficulties faced by
Christians in the area, inviting the faithful to not allow the “desert
advance in our consciences and our hearts precisely while we are trying to
advance the Gospel.”
“Do not forget”, he continued, “that the Son of
God’s intense days were preceded and followed by an even more intense dialogue
with the Father. Let us also, dear friends, pause at the oasis of Elim spoken
of in the book of Exodus so that, despite the serious worries that the present
holds for Christians in the Middle East and in your own dear country, our
faithfulness may be reinvigorated while embracing the beauty of friendship with
God.”
Cardinal Sandri went on to describe he meeting in Alexandria with
the Egyptian Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Franciscan Missionary
Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The Italian prelate also noted the
recent construction of a church in Sharm el-Sheikh which he described as
“an exception example of Christian charity.”
“Many contributed generously: the area’s ecclesial community,
the Pontifical Representation, and some assistance agencies belonging to ROACO
(Reunion of Organizations for Aid to the Oriental Churches) of which the
prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches is president,”
Cardinal Sandri said.
“We cannot nor do we want to forget Egypt’s secular
tradition: the heights of religiousness and culture that it has now and which
must be confirmed in the present and the future: a culture ever open to the
revelation of God.”
“Safeguarding and cultivating the faith,” he continued,
“in the cultural arena constitutes a privileged part of our pastoral
mission and, perhaps, collaboration between the various centers that have for
some time inspired the apostolic and missionary activity of this nation should
be incentivized.”
The Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches concluded
his discourse by entrusting the objectives of the Year of Faith to those
responsible for apostolic events. Among the objectives, Cardinal Sandri
emphasized a “renewed missionary impulse from the Year of Faith.”
“The ability to profess one’s own creed must be guaranteed to
everyone without exception, and thus also to Christians,” he stressed.