{"id":12804,"date":"2016-02-04T08:44:16","date_gmt":"2016-02-04T08:44:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/?p=12804"},"modified":"2016-02-04T08:44:16","modified_gmt":"2016-02-04T08:44:16","slug":"pope-asks-protestants-and-catholics-to-forgive-each-other-for-past-persecution-acn-malta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/02\/04\/pope-asks-protestants-and-catholics-to-forgive-each-other-for-past-persecution-acn-malta\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope asks Protestants and Catholics to forgive each other for past persecution-ACN Malta"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><h2><strong>Pope asks Protestants and Catholics to forgive each other for past persecution <\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>At a prayer service concluding the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Pope Francis asked for God\u2019s mercy upon divided Christians \u201cWe ask most of all for forgiveness for the sin of our divisions, which are an open wound on the body of Christ\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>He went on to apologise for historic persecution of Protestants: \u201cAs bishop of Rome and pastor of the Catholic Church, I want to beg for mercy and forgiveness for un-Gospel-like behaviour on the part of Catholics against Christians of other churches\u201d. He also asked Catholics to forgive any hurt at the hands of other Christians, adding \u201cWe cannot erase what happened, but we do not want to allow the burden of past faults to continue to poison our relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Anglican Archbishop David Moxon, representing the archbishop of Canterbury and Orthodox Metropolitan Gennadios, representing the ecumenical patriarch, walked across the threshold of the Holy Door of the Basilica of St Paul Outsie the Walls alongside the Pope. They joined the pope in prayer at St Paul\u2019s tomb during the service.<\/p>\n<p>In his homily, Pope Francis said St Paul and countless Christian martyrs throughout the centuries had given their lives for their faith in Christ and now enjoyed \u201cfull communion in the presence of God the father. He prayed that the martyrs by their example would sustain today\u2019s Christians.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBeyond the differences that still separate us,\u201d said the Pope \u201cwe recognise with joy that at the origin of the Christian life there is always a call whose author is God himself\u201d and added \u201cWhen all Christians of different churches listen to the word of God and try to put it into practice, they truly take important steps toward unity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The path to Christian unity, Francis stated, did not just mean drawing closer to one another, but has more to do with each person drawing closer to Christ and thus finding each other.<\/p>\n<p>He addHe went on to explain: \u201cIt is not only the call that unites us. We are joined by the same mission: to proclaim to all the mighty acts of the Lord. Walking together and working together, we will become aware that we are already united in the name of the Lord. Unity is made by walking.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>ACN Malta<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pope asks Protestants and Catholics to forgive each other for past persecution &nbsp; At a prayer service concluding the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Pope Francis asked for God\u2019s mercy upon divided Christians \u201cWe ask most of all for forgiveness for the sin of our divisions, which are an open wound on the body&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12806,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-newsletters"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Pope asks Protestants and Catholics to forgive each other for past persecution-ACN Malta - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/02\/04\/pope-asks-protestants-and-catholics-to-forgive-each-other-for-past-persecution-acn-malta\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pope asks Protestants and Catholics to forgive each other for past persecution-ACN Malta - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Pope asks Protestants and Catholics to forgive each other for past persecution &nbsp; 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