Vatican
City, 30 November 2012 (VIS) – Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical
Council for Promoting Christian Unity, is leading a delegation sent by the Holy
See to Istanbul to participate in celebrations marking the Feast of St. Andrew,
patron of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. The Holy See and the
Patriarchate exchange regular annual visits for the feast days of their
respective patrons.
The
Holy See delegation to this year’s celebration is made up of Cardinal Koch;
Bishop Brian Farrell, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting
Christian Unity; Fr. Andrea Palmieri, an official of the same dicastery, and
Archbishop Antonio Lucibello, apostolic nuncio to Turkey. The group attended a
divine liturgy celebrated by Bartholomew I in the patriarchal church of Fanar,
then met with the Patriarch and the synodal commission which oversees relations
with the Catholic Church.
Cardinal
Koch gave Bartholomew I a gift and a message from the Holy Father which was
read out at the end of the divine liturgy. He then met with representatives of
the local Catholic community and the ecumenical council of the apostolic
vicariate of the Catholic Church in Istanbul.
In
his message, the Pope explains that this annual exchange of delegations
“is testimony to the fraternal bonds which join us together. It is a
profound and genuine communion, if still imperfect, which is based not on human
motives of courtesy or convenience but rather on our common faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. … This solid foundation allows us to proceed together confidently
on the path to the re-establishment of full communion”.
“In our times, the most urgent challenge,
about which we have always been in perfect agreement, … is how we must connect
the proclamation of God’s merciful love for contemporary man, so often
distracted and incapable of reflection on the meaning of his own existence, and
as such often misled by plans and utopias that can lead only to
disillusionment. The Church has only one message, ‘God’s Gospel’, and no method
other than its apostolic proclamation, supported and guaranteed by the
testimony and sanctity of the life of priests and the people of God. The Lord
Jesus told us that ‘the harvest is rich’, and we must not accept that it may be
lost as a result of our weaknesses and divisions”, concluded the Holy
Father.