{"id":20055,"date":"2017-02-02T07:35:32","date_gmt":"2017-02-02T07:35:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/?p=20055"},"modified":"2017-02-02T07:35:32","modified_gmt":"2017-02-02T07:35:32","slug":"pope-addresses-commission-for-dialogue-with-oriental-orthodox-churches-acn-malta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/02\/02\/pope-addresses-commission-for-dialogue-with-oriental-orthodox-churches-acn-malta\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope addresses Commission for dialogue with Oriental Orthodox Churches &#8211; ACN Malta"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><h2><strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Pope addresses Commission for dialogue with Oriental Orthodox Churches<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Pope Francis sent a message to the International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches. The Commission group includes representatives of the six ancient Churches of the East who met in the Vatican this week.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><em>Below is the <\/em><\/strong><strong><em>official <\/em><\/strong><strong><em>Vatican translation of <\/em><\/strong><strong><em>Pope Francis\u2019 <\/em><\/strong><strong><em>address to the <\/em><\/strong><strong><em>Commission:<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Dear Brothers in Christ,<\/p>\n<p>In offering you a joyful welcome, I thank you for your presence and for the kind words that Metropolitan Bishop addressed to me on your behalf.\u00a0 Through you, I send cordial greetings to the Heads of the Oriental Orthodox Churches, my venerable brothers.<\/p>\n<p>I am grateful for the work of your Commission, which began in 2003 and is now holding its fourteenth meeting.\u00a0 Last year you began an examination of the nature of the sacraments, especially baptism.\u00a0 It is precisely in baptism that we rediscovered the basis of communion between Christians.\u00a0 As Catholics and Oriental Orthodox, we can repeat the words of the Apostle Paul: \u201cFor in the one Spirit, we were all baptized into one body\u201d (1 Cor 12:13).\u00a0 In the course of this week, you have further reflected on historical, theological and ecclesiological aspects of the Holy Eucharist, \u201cthe source and summit of the whole Christian life\u201d, which admirably expresses and brings about the unity of God\u2019s people (Lumen Gentium, 11).\u00a0 I encourage you to persevere in your efforts and I trust that your work may point out helpful ways to advance on our journey.\u00a0 It will thus facilitate the path towards that greatly desired day when we will have the grace of celebrating the Lord\u2019s Sacrifice at the same altar, as a sign of fully restored ecclesial communion.<\/p>\n<p>Many of you belong to Churches that witness daily the spread of violence and acts of brutality perpetrated by fundamentalist extremism.\u00a0 We are aware that situations of such tragic suffering more easily take root in the context of great poverty, injustice and social exclusion, due to instability created by partisan interests, often from elsewhere, and by earlier conflicts that have led to situations of dire need, cultural and spiritual deserts where it becomes easy to manipulate and incite people to hatred.\u00a0 Each day your Churches, in drawing near to those who suffer, are called to sow concord and to work patiently to restore hope by offering the consoling peace that comes from the Lord, a peace we are obliged together to bring to a world wounded and in pain.<\/p>\n<p>Saint Paul also writes: \u201cIf one member suffers, all suffer together\u201d (1 Cor 12:26).\u00a0 Your sufferings are our sufferings.\u00a0 I join you in praying for an end to the conflict and for God\u2019s closeness to those who have endured so much, especially children, the sick and the elderly.\u00a0 In a particular way, my heart goes out to the bishops, priests, consecrated men and women, and the lay faithful who have been cruelly abducted, taken hostage or enslaved.<\/p>\n<p>May the Christian communities be sustained by the intercession and example of our many martyrs and saints who bore courageous witness to Christ.\u00a0 They show us the heart of our faith, which does not consist in a generic message of peace and reconciliation but in Jesus himself, crucified and risen.\u00a0 He is our peace and our reconciliation (cf. Eph 2:14; 2 Cor 5:18).\u00a0\u00a0 As his disciples, we are called to testify everywhere, with Christian fortitude, to his humble love that reconciles men and women in every age.\u00a0 Wherever violence begets more violence and sows death, there our response must be the pure leaven of the Gospel, which, eschewing strategies of power, allows fruits of life to emerge from arid ground and hope to dawn after nights of terror.<\/p>\n<p>The centre of the Christian life, the mystery of Jesus who died and rose out of love, is also the point of reference for our journey towards full unity.\u00a0 Once more the martyrs show us the way.\u00a0 How many times has the sacrifice of their lives led Christians, otherwise divided in so many things, to unity!\u00a0 The martyrs and saints of all ecclesial traditions are already one in Christ (cf. Jn 17:22); their names are written in the one common martyrology of God\u2019s Church.\u00a0 Having sacrificed themselves on earth out of love, they dwell in the one heavenly Jerusalem, gathered around the Lamb who was slain (cf. Rev 7:13-17).\u00a0 Their lives, offered as a gift, call us to communion, to hasten along the path to full unity.\u00a0 Just as in the early Church the blood of the martyrs was the seed of new Christians, so in our own day may the blood of so many martyrs be a seed of unity between believers, a sign and instrument of a future of communion and peace.<\/p>\n<p>Dear brothers, I am grateful for the efforts you make towards attaining this goal.\u00a0 In thanking you for your visit, I invoke upon you and your ministry the blessing of the Lord and the loving protection of the Holy Mother of God.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>ACN Malta<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pope addresses Commission for dialogue with Oriental Orthodox Churches &nbsp; Pope Francis sent a message to the International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches. The Commission group includes representatives of the six ancient Churches of the East who met in the Vatican this week. Below is the official&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20057,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-newsletters","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Pope addresses Commission for dialogue with Oriental Orthodox Churches - 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\/2017\/02\/02\/pope-addresses-commission-for-dialogue-with-oriental-orthodox-churches-acn-malta\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pope addresses Commission for dialogue with Oriental Orthodox Churches - ACN Malta - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Pope addresses Commission for dialogue with Oriental Orthodox Churches &nbsp; Pope Francis sent a message to the International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches. The Commission group includes representatives of the six ancient Churches of the East who met in the Vatican this week. Below is the official...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/02\/02\/pope-addresses-commission-for-dialogue-with-oriental-orthodox-churches-acn-malta\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-02-02T07:35:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/pope-francis-joins-instagram1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"ACN Malta Media\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"ACN Malta Media\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/02\/02\/pope-addresses-commission-for-dialogue-with-oriental-orthodox-churches-acn-malta\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/02\/02\/pope-addresses-commission-for-dialogue-with-oriental-orthodox-churches-acn-malta\/\",\"name\":\"Pope addresses Commission for dialogue with Oriental Orthodox Churches - ACN Malta - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/02\/02\/pope-addresses-commission-for-dialogue-with-oriental-orthodox-churches-acn-malta\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/02\/02\/pope-addresses-commission-for-dialogue-with-oriental-orthodox-churches-acn-malta\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/pope-francis-joins-instagram1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-02-02T07:35:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-02-02T07:35:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/3c01ab68e03f1b76347f9f6ac439a9d2\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/02\/02\/pope-addresses-commission-for-dialogue-with-oriental-orthodox-churches-acn-malta\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/02\/02\/pope-addresses-commission-for-dialogue-with-oriental-orthodox-churches-acn-malta\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/02\/02\/pope-addresses-commission-for-dialogue-with-oriental-orthodox-churches-acn-malta\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/pope-francis-joins-instagram1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/pope-francis-joins-instagram1.jpg\",\"width\":300,\"height\":300},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/02\/02\/pope-addresses-commission-for-dialogue-with-oriental-orthodox-churches-acn-malta\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Pope addresses Commission for dialogue with Oriental Orthodox Churches &#8211; ACN Malta\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/\",\"name\":\"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\",\"description\":\"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/3c01ab68e03f1b76347f9f6ac439a9d2\",\"name\":\"ACN Malta Media\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/93fb625be2ad6b7f825159f4ef11b098?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/93fb625be2ad6b7f825159f4ef11b098?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"ACN Malta Media\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/author\/admin2\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Pope addresses Commission for dialogue with Oriental Orthodox Churches - ACN Malta - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/02\/02\/pope-addresses-commission-for-dialogue-with-oriental-orthodox-churches-acn-malta\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Pope addresses Commission for dialogue with Oriental Orthodox Churches - ACN Malta - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","og_description":"Pope addresses Commission for dialogue with Oriental Orthodox Churches &nbsp; Pope Francis sent a message to the International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches. The Commission group includes representatives of the six ancient Churches of the East who met in the Vatican this week. Below is the official...","og_url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/02\/02\/pope-addresses-commission-for-dialogue-with-oriental-orthodox-churches-acn-malta\/","og_site_name":"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","article_published_time":"2017-02-02T07:35:32+00:00","og_image":[{"width":300,"height":300,"url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/pope-francis-joins-instagram1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"ACN Malta Media","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"ACN Malta Media","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/02\/02\/pope-addresses-commission-for-dialogue-with-oriental-orthodox-churches-acn-malta\/","url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/02\/02\/pope-addresses-commission-for-dialogue-with-oriental-orthodox-churches-acn-malta\/","name":"Pope addresses Commission for dialogue with Oriental Orthodox Churches - ACN Malta - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/02\/02\/pope-addresses-commission-for-dialogue-with-oriental-orthodox-churches-acn-malta\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/02\/02\/pope-addresses-commission-for-dialogue-with-oriental-orthodox-churches-acn-malta\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/pope-francis-joins-instagram1.jpg","datePublished":"2017-02-02T07:35:32+00:00","dateModified":"2017-02-02T07:35:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/3c01ab68e03f1b76347f9f6ac439a9d2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/02\/02\/pope-addresses-commission-for-dialogue-with-oriental-orthodox-churches-acn-malta\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/02\/02\/pope-addresses-commission-for-dialogue-with-oriental-orthodox-churches-acn-malta\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/02\/02\/pope-addresses-commission-for-dialogue-with-oriental-orthodox-churches-acn-malta\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/pope-francis-joins-instagram1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/pope-francis-joins-instagram1.jpg","width":300,"height":300},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/02\/02\/pope-addresses-commission-for-dialogue-with-oriental-orthodox-churches-acn-malta\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Pope addresses Commission for dialogue with Oriental Orthodox Churches &#8211; ACN Malta"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#website","url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/","name":"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","description":"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/3c01ab68e03f1b76347f9f6ac439a9d2","name":"ACN Malta Media","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/93fb625be2ad6b7f825159f4ef11b098?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/93fb625be2ad6b7f825159f4ef11b098?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"ACN Malta Media"},"url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/author\/admin2\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}