N. 134 (2010/II) CONTENTS

Transcription

1 N. 134 (2010/II) CONTENTS CARDINAL WALTER KASPER RETIRES, ARCHBISHOP KURT KOCH APPOINTED PRESIDENT OF THE PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN UNITY IN MEMORIAM: MONSIGNOR ELEUTERIO FRANCESCO FORTINO, POPE BENEDICT XVI AND ECUMENISM, February-September POPE S VISIT TO THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH IN ROME, 14 March CONCERT IN HONOUR OF POPE BENEDICT XVI OFFERED BY THE PATRIARCH OF MOSCOW AND ALL RUSSIA, Rome, 20 May POPE BENEDICT XVI S APOSTOLIC JOURNEY TO CYPRUS, 4-6 June EDINBURGH 2010, CENTENARY OF THE WORLD MISSION CONFERENCE OF 1910, 2-6 June UNITING GENERAL COUNCIL OF THE WORLD COMMUNION OF REFORMED CHURCHES, June VISIT TO ROME OF A DELEGATION FROM THE ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE FOR THE SOLEMNITY OF STS PETER AND PAUL, June APOSTOLIC JOURNEY TO GREAT BRITAIN, September ECUMENICAL NEWS Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, Vienna, Austria, September Joint Working Group between the RCC and the WCC, Plenary Meeting, Damascus, Syria, 26 September 2 October COMMISSION FOR RELIGIOUS RELATIONS WITH THE JEWS OFFICES: via della Conciliazione, Rome (Italy). Telephones: (Editorial Office) (Administration) Fax: vcaroli@christianunity.va

2 Editor: VLADIMIRO CAROLI, OP SUBSCRIPTIONS one year: ITALY: e25 EUROPE: e35 OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD: $48 1 back issue: $9 e7 For your subscription, please enclose check or international postal money order, made out to: Information Service - Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity Vatican City, Europe Address for all correspondence The material in this INFORMATION SERVICE is not copyright, but we would appreciate a copy of any publication which includes extensive quotation from it.

3 CARDINAL WALTER KASPER RETIRES ARCHBISHOP KURT KOCH, APPOINTED PRESIDENT OF THE PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN UNITY Cardinal Walter Kasper ended his term of office as President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity on 1 July 2010, subsequently becoming its President Emeritus. The Holy Father nominated His Excellency Kurt Koch, Bishop of Basle, as his successor, elevating him at the same time to the rank of Archbishop. Archbishop Koch had already been a member and consultor of the Pontifical Council. Cardinal Kasper was President of the PCPCU for over nine years. He had previously played a key role as Secretary ( ), during which time he was among the signatories of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification between the Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation (31 October 1999). Cardinal Kasper s presidency was marked by a number of important events in the journey towards Christian unity. In particular, mention should be made of the resumption of the work of the Joint Theological Commission for the Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church as a Whole, which issued an important document in Ravenna in 2007 entitled The Ecclesiological and Canonical Consequences of the Sacramental Nature of the Church: Ecclesial Communion, Conciliarity and Authority. Other key documents and events include the publication of the Guidelines for Admission to the Eucharist Between the Chaldean Church and the Assyrian Church of the East (Information Service [IS], n /IV); the symposium on the Petrine ministry held in 2003 (IS /II III); the symposium held on the 40th anniversary of Unitatis redintegratio (IS /I II); the adoption on the part of the World Methodist Council of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (IS /II). In the context of promoting relations of the Holy See with other Christians, Cardinal Kasper visited nearly all the Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox Churches, as well as the churches and ecclesial communities of the Reformation tradition. Many church leaders of both the East and the West visited the Church of Rome and the Holy Father during the presidency of Cardinal Kasper. Particular mention should be made of the visits of the Ecumenical Patriarch, and of Christodoulos, the Archbishop of Athens and All Greece; of Chrysostomos II, the Archbishop of Nea Justiniana and All Cyprus; and of Anastas, Archbishop of Tirana, Durrës and All Albania, which were the first official visits to Rome of the primates of these three Orthodox Churches. Other significant visits include those of Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, and Aram I, the Catholicos of Cilicia. Cardinal Kasper led a number of official delegations of the Holy See to the annual feast of Saint Andrew at the Ecumenical Patriarchate. As well, His Eminence guided the delegation to Moscow in 2004, when on Pope John Paul II s behalf he handed over the Mother of God of Kazan, an icon highly venerated by the Russian faithful that had made its way to the West (IS n /III). Cardinal Kasper also played an important role in relations with the ecclesial communities of the West. Two important events can be mentioned with regard to relations with the Anglican Communion, namely his memorable presentation to the House of Bishops in June 2006 regarding the ordination of women to the Anglican episcopacy; and his speech to the Lambeth Conference in July 2008 regarding the internal difficulties of the Anglican Communion and the future of ecumenical relations with the Catholic Church. Cardinal Kasper also played a crucial role in the successful outcome of many apostolic journeys of the Holy Father which featured an ecumenical aspect; for example, the visit to Turkey and the memorable encounter with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople in He also took part in visits involving the Jewish community, such as to the Holy Land in Relations with Judaism continued to develop positively during his term of office, despite the occasional misunderstanding. Cardinal Kasper s approach always sought to overcome differences, as can be seen in his article in L Osservatore Romano on 10 April 2008 entitled The Discussion of the Recent Modifications of the Prayer for the Jews for Good Friday. Other texts of the Pontifical Council published under the guidance of Cardinal Kasper include the Handbook of Spiritual Ecumenism (New City Press, New York, 2007) and Harvesting the Fruits (Continuum, New York, 2008). The latter offers an overview of the 40 years of dialogue with Lutherans, Anglicans, Methodists and Reformed. The newly appointed President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity is His Excellency Kurt Koch, former Bishop of Basle, whom the Holy Father elevated to the personal dignity of Archbishop. He was appointed to the Diocese of Basle, the 33

4 largest Swiss diocese, in 1995, and was the President of the Conference of Swiss Bishops from 2007 to Archbishop Koch has had vast experience in the field of ecumenical dialogue. He was formerly a member of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, as well as a member of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue Between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church as a whole, and of the International Lutheran-Roman Catholic Commission on Unity. His theological thought and published texts have reflected his attention to Christian unity, which has also marked his episcopal ministry. His experience and expertise with regard to the communities originating in the Reformation tradition, which is not only theoretical and academic but also practical, has been an important factor in the Holy Father s decision to appoint him to this role, as Archbishop Koch himself has affirmed. 34

5 IN MEMORIAM: MONSIGNOR ELEUTERIO FRANCESCO FORTINO Monsignor Eleuterio Francesco Fortino was born in 1938 at Lattarico in the province of Cosenza, of an Italo- Albanian family. Thus, he was deep-rooted in the byzantine tradition of the Albanian community established in South Italy during the XV th century. Monsignor Fortino, also known as Archimandrite Eleuterio, achieved his philosophical and theological studies at the Italo-Greek Monastery of Santa Maria in Grottaferrata, at the Pontifical College of Saint Athanasius and then at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. In 1963 he was ordained priest of the eparchy of Lungro at the Church of Saint Athanasius of the Greek in Rome. Already in that year he was entrusted with responsibilities in the ecumenical field, since in the last session of Vatican II he was in charge of assisting the observers of the other Christian confessions invited to the Council. In 1965, thanks to His Excellency Monsignor Johannes Willebrands, he took service at the then Secretariat for Christian Unity which had been established only five years before. Since then, Monsignor Fortino has always been present in the fundamental phases of the ecumenical walk in almost the last 50 years. On 30 November 1969, he was part of the delegation of Phanar who launched the traditional exchange of visits between Rome and Constantinople and continues still every year on the occasion of the respective patronal feasts of Sts Peter and Paul and St Andrew. He was also directly concerned in the coordination of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, which was officially instituted in 1979 in Phanar by Pope John Paul II and the Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios I. He outstandingly served as Catholic co-secretary of this Commission until his death. In 1987 he was appointed Under-Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christina Unity where he always assumed his duties with great dedication and despite serious health problems, he constantly contributed in enriching the daily office routine with an impressive sense of peacefulness and a touch of humour, generosity and goodwill in handling matters and in dealing with persons. He dedicated much care to interpersonal relations developing true friendship relationships with many Orthodox and Protestant representatives, gaining the esteem and appreciation of all. He also held great importance to the spiritual dimension in the promotion of unity and to the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, for which he was for years the Catholic coordinator of the international editorial group of the texts for the Week of Prayer, published worldwide every year. He always remained close to his Albanian and byzantine roots in Calabria which he nurtured on the pastoral level, through the service he offered at the Church of Saint Athanasius of the Greek in Rome, and by collaborating with the Italo-Albanian Church, as President of the central committee of the inter-eparchial synod of the three byzantine districts in Italy ( ) and also on the cultural level by contributing to various periodicals (Besa) and monographic publications. The memory of Monsignor Fortino will long live in the heart of all those who have known him; may God grant him eternal peace. Below we print the messages of the Holy Father Benedict XVI and of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, upon learning the painful news of his death. THE HOLY FATHER S MESSAGE Bishop Brian Farrell Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity Vatican City On learning the sad news of the death of Reverend Monsignor Eleuterio Francesco Fortino, Under-Secretary of your dicastery, the Holy Father asks Your Excellency to express his sympathy and condolences to the mourning family of the deceased. Recalling with gratitude his generous commitment to the service of unity and brotherhood among all the disciples of the Lord, carried out with intelligence and passion, the Holy Father offers his heartfelt prayer of suffrage for his soul and extends the consolation of his apostolic blessing to all who mourn his passing and those participating in the memorial service. Cardinal TARCISIO BERTONE Secretary of State of His Holiness MESSAGE OF THE ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH BARTHOLOMEW I To His Excellency Archbishop Kurt Koch President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian unity our beloved in the Lord: Grace be to you and peace from God 35

6 We are deeply pained to learn of the falling asleep in the Lord of our dearly beloved Monsignor Eleuterio Fortino. In your understandable sorrow at this time, we wish to convey to you our personal condolences, as well as those of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Monsignor Fortino or Fr. Eleuterio, as usually we called him, served as the bridge of communication and friendly exchange between our two Churches for many decades. During his tenure he demonstrated his discernment, sincerity, and dedication to the work of the Dialogue, as well as to the fraternal relations of our Churches. He was a humble labourer and a devoted servant of the Church of Elder Rome. We remember fondly his hopefulness, and we can never forget the delightful manner in which he offered his words of wisdom and love. He shall truly be missed. With these few thoughts, Your Excellency, we offer our fervent prayers for the repose of his soul and for God s abiding comfort to come upon you. May our almighty God place Monsignor Fortino s soul among the righteous, where there is no sorrow, grief, or mourning. May you and all who dearly loved and collaborated with him find comfort in the company of one another. May his memory be eternal! At the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the 11 th of October 2011 Your fervent supplicant before God, BARTHOLOMEW Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch 36

7 POPE BENEDICT XVI AND ECUMENISM February September 2010 TO THE BISHOPS OF ENGLAND AND WALES ON AD LIMINA VISIT 1 February 2010 On Monday, 1 February, the Holy Father met with the Bishops of England and Wales on the occasion of their ad limina visit. The Pope encouraged the Bishops to continue their important work in ecumenical and interreligious dialogue and to effectively present Christ s message to the world. The following is an excerpt of the Pope s Address. ( ) Ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue assume great importance in England and Wales, given the varied demographic profile of the population. As well as encouraging you in your important work in these areas, I would ask you to be generous in implementing the provisions of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus, so as to assist those groups of Anglicans who wish to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church. I am convinced that, if given a warm and open-hearted welcome, such groups will be a blessing for the entire Church. ( ) ORE, 3 February 2010 TO THE ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH ON HIS 70 TH BIRTHDAY 27 February 2010 To His Holiness Bartholomaios I Archbishop of Constantinople Ecumenical Patriarch Your Holiness, The happy occasion of your Seventieth Birthday offers me a welcome opportunity to give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Giver of every good gift, for the abundant blessings which he has bestowed upon Your Holiness, and at the same time to convey my warm good wishes. These fervent and fraternal good wishes are accompanied by my prayers that our One Lord will sustain you with his strength and grace as you carry * Sources of the texts are designated as follows: OR: L Osservatore Romano, daily edition in Italian; ORE: L Osservatore Romano, weekly edition in English. If texts come from sources other than L Osservatore Romano, this will be noted. When translation is made by the Information Service it is indicated by the abbreviation: IS. out your high ministry of Pastor, Preacher of the Gospel and Teacher of the spiritual life. With pleasant memories of our meetings, particularly my visit to the Phanar for the Feast of the Apostle Andrew, Peter s Brother, I exchange with Your Holiness a holy embrace, while expressing my prayerful confidence that the Spirit of God will continue to enlighten and guide our paths towards the full communion willed by Christ for all our disciples. ORE, 3 March 2010 POPE S MESSAGE TO THE KIRCHENTAG IN GERMANY 10 May 2010 From May, Catholic and Evangelical representatives gathered in Munich for an ecumenical congress on the theme: So That You Might Have Hope. Some 130,000 participants registered for the congress promoted by the Central Committee of German Catholics and the German Evangelical Congress. On Wednesday night, 300,000 people formed a human chain to pray the Our Father together in the streets of the city. On Friday, as part of the congress, participants met in Munich s Odeonsplatz for the celebration of Vespers according to the Orthodox tradition. Then, after singing hymns and offering prayers, Christians of different confessions had an agape meal, in which they shared blessed bread, oil and wine. The congress aims to promote reflection on the way Christians can witness to their faith in modern secular society. This is the second congress of its kind; the first took place two years ago in Berlin with 500,000 participants. The following is a translation of the Pope s Message to those present, which was written in German. Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, From Rome I greet all those who have gathered at the Theresienwiese in Munich for the liturgical celebration to open the second ecumenical Kirchentag. I recall with joy the years when I lived in the beautiful capital of Bavaria as the Archbishop of Munich and Freising. Therefore I address a special greeting to the Archbishop of Munich and Freising, Reinhard Marx, and to the regional Lutheran Bishop, Johannes Friedrich. I greet all the Bishops of Germany and of many of the world s countries, and in a special way also the representatives of the other Churches and ecclesial communities, and all the Christians who are participating in this ecumenical event. I also greet the representatives of public life and all those 37

8 who are present via radio and television. May the peace of the Risen Lord be with you all! So That You Might Have Hope : with this motto you have gathered together in Munich. You wish to send a signal of hope to the Church and to society at such a difficult time. For this I thank you very much. Indeed, our world needs hope, our times need hope. But is the Church a place of hope? In recent months we have had to repeatedly face news which seeks to take joy away from the Church, which would darken her as a place of hope. Like the servants of the householder in the Gospel parable about the Kingdom of God, we too wish to ask the Lord: Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then has it weeds? (Mt 13:27). Yes, with his Word and with the sacrifice of his life the Lord truly sowed good seed in the earth. It sprouted and grows. We need not think only of the great luminous historical figures, to whom the Church has given the title saints. They were completely permeated by God, resplendent because of him. Each one of us also knows ordinary people, not mentioned in any newspaper nor reported in any history, who grew through faith achieving great humanity and goodness. In his impassioned dispute with God to save the city of Sodom, Abraham received assurance from the Lord of the Universe that if there were ten just people there then he would not destroy the city (cf. Gen 18:22-33). Thanks be to God, in our cities there are many more than ten just people! If we can be more attentive today, if we do not perceive only the darkness, but also what is light and good in our times, then we may see how faith makes men and women pure and generous and educates them in love. Again, weeds also exist within the Church and among those whom the Lord has welcomed into his service in a special way. But the light of God has not gone out, the good seed has not been destroyed by the seed of evil. So That You Might Have Hope. This phrase intends first of all to invite us not to lose sight of goodness and of good people. It invites us to be good ourselves and to become good again always. It invites us to plead with God for the world, like Abraham, ourselves passionately seeking to live by God s justice. Is the Church then a place of hope? Yes, since from her the Word of God always reaches us afresh, the Word that purifies us and shows us the way of faith. This is because in her the Lord continues to give himself to us, in the grace of the sacraments, in the word of reconciliation, in the many gifts of his consolation. Nothing can darken or destroy all of this. We must be joyful for this in the midst of all the tribulation. If we speak of the Church as a place of hope that comes from God, then at the same time that entails an examination of conscience: What do I do with the hope that the Lord has given us? Do I really allow myself be formed by his Word? Do I let myself be changed and healed by him? How many weeds are truly growing in me? Am I disposed to root them out? Am I grateful for the gift of forgiveness and ready to forgive and to heal in turn, instead of condemning? Let us ask once again: What really is hope? The things that we can achieve on our own are not objects of hope, but rather tasks that we must carry out with the force of our reason, our will and our heart. However, if we reflect on all that we can and should do, then we note that we cannot achieve the greater things that come to us only as a gift: friendship, love, joy, happiness. I would like to note one more thing: we all want to live, and we cannot even give life on our own. But almost no one today speaks of eternal life any more, which in the past was the true object of hope. Because no one dares to believe in it, one seeks to obtain everything from the present life. To set aside hope in eternal life leads to a greediness for life here and now, which almost inevitably becomes selfish and, in the end, remains unrealizable. Truly when we want to take hold of life as a type of good, it slips away. But let us go back. The great things of life that we cannot achieve by ourselves, can only be hoped for. The glad tidings of the faith consist truly of this: the One who can give them to us exists. We have not been left alone. God is living. God loves us. In Jesus Christ he became one of us. I can turn to him and he will listen to me. Because of this, like Peter, in our confused time, which persuades us to believe in other different ways, we say: Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God (Jn 6:68-69). Dear Friends, I wish for all of you who are gathered at the Theresienwiese in Munich to once again be overcome by the joy of being able to know God, to know Christ and to know that he knows us. This is our hope and our joy amid the turmoil of the present. From the Vatican, 10 May 2010 BENEDICTUS PP. XVI TO BRAZILIAN BISHOPS CONFERENCE ON AD LIMINA VISIT 10 September 2010 On Friday 10 September, in the Hall of the Swiss guard at the Papal Summer Residence in Castel Gandolfo, the Holy Father spoke to the Bishops of the Brazilian Episcopal Conference, North East III region, at the end of their ad limina visit to Rome. The following is an excerpt of the Pope s address originally delivered in Portuguese. ( ) A rapid expansion of Evangelical and Neo- Pentecostal communities is evident in the religious panorama of Brazil. In a certain sense the reasons at the root of these groups success are a sign of your people s widespread thirst for God. This is also an indicator of evangelization at a personal level, which is at times superficial; in fact, baptized people insufficiently evangelized can easily be swayed because their faith is frail; it is all too often based on an ingenuous form 38

9 of devotion whereas, as I have said, they retain an innate religious sense. In the face of this situation a clear need for the Catholic Church in Brazil is emerging. On the one hand she must commit herself to a new evangelization that spares no effort in seeking Catholics who have drifted away or of those who know little or nothing of the Gospel message, but brings them to a personal encounter with Jesus Christ, living and active in his Church. On the other hand, with the growth of new groups that in spite of being divided into various communities and denominations claim to be followers of Christ, it is even more imperative for Catholic pastors to commit themselves to building bridges to establish contact through a healthy ecumenical dialogue in the truth. This effort is necessary first of all because division among Christians is contrary to the will of the Lord that all may be one (Jn 17:21). Furthermore, the lack of unity is a cause of scandal and ends by undermining the credibility of the Christian message proclaimed in society. Moreover its proclamation is perhaps even more necessary today than in past decades because, as your reports clearly demonstrate, the negative influence of intellectual and moral relativism in peoples lives is evident, even in the small towns in the interior of Brazil. Numerous obstacles stand in the way of Christian unity. In the first place it is essential to reject an erroneous vision of ecumenism that is conducive to a certain doctrinal indifferentism that seeks with a-critical irenics to level out all opinions in a sort of ecclesiological relativism. On a par with this is the challenge of the constant rise of new Christian groups, some of which resort to aggressive proselytism, which shows that the scene of ecumenism is still very variegated and confused. In this context as I said in 2007 in the Cathedral da Sé in São Paulo, at the unforgettable meeting with you Brazilian Bishops a good historical and doctrinal formation is absolutely essential, so as to foster necessary discernment that leads to a better understanding of the specific identity of each of these communities, of the elements that divide them, and elements that can be helpful on the road to building greater unity. The greatest common ground for collaboration should be the defence of fundamental moral values transmitted by the biblical tradition against the relativistic and consumerist cultural forces that seek to destroy them. Another such area is faith in God the Creator and in Jesus Christ his incarnate Son. I therefore encourage you to continue taking positive steps in this direction. One such is dialogue with the churches and ecclesial communities that belong to the National Council of Christian Churches, which, with initiatives like the Ecumenical Brotherhood Campaign, contribute to promoting Gospel values in Brazilian society. Esteemed Brothers, dialogue among Christians is an imperative in our day and an irreversible option of the Church. In the meantime, as the Second Vatican Council recalled, prayer, conversion and the sanctification of life must be at the heart of every effort to promote unity (cf. Unitatis Redintegratio, n. 8). It is the Lord who gives unity, it is not something created by human beings; Pastors are duty bound to obey the Lord s will, promoting practical initiatives that are free from any kind of conformist reductionism. However, they must be carried out with sincerity and realism and with the patience and perseverance born from faith in the providential action of the Holy Spirit. Dear and venerable Brothers, at this meeting I have sought to highlight briefly several aspects of the great challenge of ecumenism entrusted to your apostolic concern. As I take my leave of you, I express once again my esteem and the assurance of my prayers for all of you and for your dioceses. ( ) ORE, 29 September

10 POPE S VISIT TO THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH IN ROME 14 March 2010 On 14 March, the fourth Sunday of Lent, known as Laetare Sunday, the Holy Father visited the Evangelical Lutheran Community of Rome at the Christuskirche in Via Sicilia. The Pope was welcomed on arrival by Pastor Dr Jens-Martin Kruse and the eight Council Members and then by Dr Doris Esch, the Community s President. Accompanying the Pope at this ecumenical service were Cardinal William Joseph Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Walter Kasper, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and Cardinal Agostino Vallini, Vicar of His Holiness for the Diocese of Rome. This was not Benedict XVI s first visit to the Lutheran Church, for as Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith he took part in an ecumenical debate there on 19 October The invitation to the Pope was prompted by the desire to celebrate the 25 th anniversary of Pope John Paul II s historic visit to the Christuskirche on 11 December 1983 in honour of the fifth centenary of Martin Luther s birth. We publish here below a translation of the Pope s discourse which was given extemporaneously in German, as well as extracts of Pastor Kruse s sermon and Dr Esch s address delivered afterwards. DISCOURSE OF THE HOLY FATHER Dear Brothers and Sisters, I would like to offer my warm thanks to the whole Community, your leaders, and in particular to Pastor Kruse, for having invited me to celebrate this Laetare Sunday with you this day on which the crucial element is hope, which sees the light spread by Christ s Resurrection dispel the darkness of our daily routine and the unresolved matters of our lives. Dear Pastor Kruse, you have interpreted St Paul s Message of hope for us. The Gospel, from the 12th chapter of John which I would like to try to explain, is also a Gospel of hope. At the same time, it is a Gospel of the Cross. These two dimensions always go together. Since the Gospel refers to the Cross it speaks of hope and, since it gives hope, it must speak of the Cross. John tells us that Jesus was going up to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover and then he says: Among those who went up to worship... were some Greeks. Without any doubt they were members of the group called phoboumenoi ton Theon, the God-fearing, who, going beyond the polytheism of their world, were seeking the authentic God who is truly God, the one God to whom the whole world belongs and who is the God of all mankind. And they had found that God, whom they were seeking and asking for, and for whom every human being is silently yearning, in the Bible of Israel, recognizing him as that God who created the world. He is the God of all men and women and, at the same time, he chose a specific people and place in which to be present among us. They were searching for God and they came to Jerusalem to worship the one God, to know something of his mystery. Furthermore, the Evangelist tells us that these people, having heard talk of Jesus, approached Philip the Apostle who came from Bethsaida, in half of which Greek is spoken and said: We wish to see Jesus. Their desire to know God impels them to want to see Jesus and through him to become more closely acquainted with God. We wish to see Jesus : we are moved by these words since we all long ever more ardently to see and to know him. I think there are two reasons why these Greeks interest us: on the one hand their situation is the same as ours; we too are pilgrims asking about God, in search of God. And we too would like to know Jesus better and truly to see him. Yet it is also true that, like Philip and Andrew, we should be Jesus friends, friends who know him and can show others the way that leads to him. I therefore think that at this time we should pray like this: Lord, help us to be people journeying towards you. Lord, grant that we may see you ever more clearly. Help us to be your friends, who open to others the door to you. Whether or not this effectively led to an encounter between Jesus and those Greeks, St John does not tell us. Jesus answer, which he does report to us, goes far beyond that chance moment. It is a twofold response. He speaks of the glorification of Jesus that was then beginning: The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified (Jn 12:23). The Lord explains this concept of glorification with the Parable of the Grain of Wheat: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit (v. 24). Indeed the grain of wheat must die, it must sink in the ground in order to absorb energy from the earth and thus develop a stem and become an ear of wheat. With regard to the Lord, this is the parable of his own mystery. He himself is the grain of wheat which came from God, the divine grain that lets itself 40

11 fall to the ground, that lets itself sink, be broken down in death and precisely by so doing germinates and can thus bear fruit in the immensity of the world. It is not merely a fleeting encounter with some person or another. Now, as the Risen One, he is new and goes beyond the limits of space and time. Now, he truly reaches the Greeks. Now, he shows himself to them and speaks to them and they speak to him; so it is that faith is born. The Church grows from all peoples, the community of the Risen Jesus Christ which will become his living Body, the ear of the grain of wheat. In this parable we also find a reference to the mystery of the Eucharist. He, who is the grain of wheat, falls to the ground and dies. In this manner the holy multiplication of the loaves [bread] of the Eucharist comes about, in which he becomes Bread for the people of all times and places. What the Lord says of himself here in this Christological parable is applied to us in two other verses: He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life (v. 25). I think that when we first hear this we do not like it. We would like to say to the Lord: But what are you telling us, Lord? Must we even hate our life? Isn t our life a gift of God? Haven t we been created in his image and likeness? Shouldn t we be grateful and glad that he has given us life?. However, Jesus words have another meaning. Of course the Lord has given us life and we are grateful for this. Gratitude and joy are fundamental attitudes of Christian life. Yes, we can be happy because we know that each of our lives comes from God. It is not a chance without meaning. I am wanted and loved. When Jesus says we must hate our life he means quite the opposite. He is thinking here of two fundamental attitudes. One is the attitude of wanting to keep my life selfishly, which is why I consider my life as my own property; I consider myself as my own property, which is why I want to make the very most of this life so as to live a full life, living for myself. Whoever does this, whoever lives for himself and thinks of and desires only himself, does not find himself but is lost. What the Lord tells us is precisely the opposite: not seizing life but giving it. And it is not that in seizing life for ourselves that we receive it, but in giving it, in going beyond ourselves not in looking at ourselves but rather in giving ourselves to the other in the humility of love, giving our life to him and to others. Thus we become rich, distancing ourselves from ourselves, freeing ourselves from ourselves. It is by giving, and not by seizing life that we truly receive life. The Lord continues and in a second verse says: If anyone serves me he must follow me; and where I am, there shall my servant be also; if anyone serves me, the Father will honour him (v. 26). This self-giving, which really is the essence of love, is identical to the Cross. In fact, the Cross is nothing other than this fundamental law of the grain of wheat that died, the fundamental law of love: that we ourselves become only when we give ourselves. But the Lord adds that this gift of self, this acceptance of the Cross, this distancing of oneself from oneself means going with him, since, in following him and in following the process of the grain of wheat, we find the way to love. This immediately seems a way fraught with difficulty and effort but for this very reason it is the way to salvation. The sequela, this going with him, who is himself the Way, the Truth and the Life, is inherent in the way of the Cross which is the way of love, of losing and of giving oneself. This concept also includes the fact that this sequela is carried out as we, that none of us has his own Christ, his own Jesus. It implies that we can follow him only if we walk with him all together, entering this we and learning with him the love that he gives. The sequela is carried out in this we. Being Christian means being we in the community of Christ s disciples. And this poses for us the question of ecumenism: sorrow at having broken this we, at having split the one path into so many paths. As a result the witness we must give is obscured and love cannot find its full expression. What must we say in this regard? Today we hear many complaints about the fact that ecumenism has reached a stalemate and that there are mutual accusations. Yet I think we should first of all be grateful that so much unity already exists. It is wonderful that today, Laetare Sunday, we can pray together, sing the same hymns, listen to the same word of God, explain it and seek to understand it together; that we look to the one Christ whom we see and to whom we wish to belong and that, in this manner, we are already witnessing that he is one, the One who has called us all and to whom, in the deepest way possible, we all belong. I believe that above all it is this that we should show the world: not every sort of dispute and conflict, but joy and gratitude at the fact that the Lord is granting this to us and that real unity exists that can become ever deeper and become increasingly a testimony of Christ s word, of Christ s way in this world. Of course, this must not satisfy us, although we must be grateful for these shared dimensions. Yet the fact that in the essentials, in the celebration of the Blessed Eucharist we are unable to drink from the same cup, we are unable to gather round the same altar, cannot but fill us with sorrow for it is we who are guilty of this, we who cloud this testimony. It must make us inwardly restless on our journey toward greater unity in the knowledge that, basically, the Lord alone can give this to us. For a unity agreed by us would be a human act, hence brittle, like everything made by the human hand. Let us give ourselves to him, let us seek to know and love him, to see him ever better. Let us therefore allow him to lead us, truly, to full unity, for which we should pray with every urgency at this moment. Dear friends, once again I would like to thank you for extending this invitation to me, for the cordiality with which you have welcomed me, and also for your words, kind Ms. Esch. Let us give thanks for having been able to pray and sing together. Let us pray for 41

12 each other, let us pray together that the Lord will grant us unity and help the world so that it may believe. Amen. ORE 24 March 2010 EXCERPTS OF PASTOR JENS-MARTIN KRUSE S HOMILY Of all the Sundays of the year, Pastor Kruse began, this Sunday is the most special. It has a particular and unusual emphasis that is crucial to our faith: Laetare Rejoice. Klein Ostern [Little Easter], as this Fourth Sunday of Lent is also known because of its particularly joyful character, comes in the midst of Lent, in the midst of our life as Christians, surrounded by divisions and failures, injuries and inadequacies, agony and death. Yet, at the same time, This Sunday exhorts us, Laetare Rejoice! And, Pastor Kruse added, our Church s liturgy leads us on this track. But what does this mean? How can we as Christians find ourselves in darkness and yet at the same time see the clear light of hope?. Christ s suffering is not swept aside, the Pastor said, but in this Sunday s biblical texts something of what was to become reality on Easter morning also shines out. We look ahead, he said, to the destination of our journey, to God. He is a God who gives life to the dead (Rom 4:17c). Consequently, our present ends in a different light. How, through it, life is changed from its very foundations, is described by Paul at the beginning of his Second Letter to the Corinthians. Paul is a highly talented theologian, the Pastor continued. But he does not make theology an end in itself: instead he engages in theology exclusively to set human beings free from what frightens them, from what oppresses them in their daily lives, from what diminishes them, and thereby opens to them the way to a life that is happy and confident : I want you to be free from anxieties, he writes (1 Cor 7:32a). This sentence distinguishes the fundamental purpose of his proclamation. Paul knows the disgrace, anxiety and hostility to which Christians who live out their faith are and remain exposed, the Pastor explained, for he himself experienced them. However Paul also speaks of comfort and of being comforted, the Pastor said. No matter how difficult things may seem, in looking to God one feels sustained and supported by his word. It is God s faithfulness and trustworthiness that moves Paul. In every affliction it is these that inspire the buts : but not driven to despair but not forsaken but not destroyed (2 Cor 4:8-9). This but begins in the humanization of God at Christmas. Closeness, loving attention and appreciation cannot be more clearly documented than when God came here, when we were in greatest need of him, to a poor stable, to the darkest corner of human abandonment and weakness. Who or what should be more credible, more trustworthy, better able to bear burdens than a God who begins where we also begin but does not finish where our own possibilities and forces are depleted? ( ). ORE, 24 March 2010 ADDRESS OF DR DORIS ESCH In Italian Holy Father, In the name of the Evangelical Lutheran Community of Rome I warmly welcome you. Thank you for accepting, as Bishop of Rome, our invitation to meet us and to visit, among the many churches of Rome, also our Christuskirche. The idea of this invitation was born on the occasion of the 25 th anniversary, in distant 1983 of the presence of your venerable Predecessor, Pope John Paul II, whose preaching then has never been forgotten by our Community. Today we are also recalling with deep gratitude the 10 th anniversary of the Gemeinsame Erklärung zur Rechtfertigungslehre [The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification]. In German Holy Father, By your coming here the Visit of your venerable Predecessor John Paul II is taking place once again and at the same time the 10 th anniversary of the signing of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification is commemorated. In our community both these experiences are alive and important and encourage us to persevere on the way towards ecumenism not so much in the consideration of our various assumptions as rather on our common action and attention to the Word and in the invocation of our common Lord, Jesus Christ, yesterday and today. This is in order to be credible always, together, and to show that we have hope. Unus fons, unus spiritus, una fides. One Baptism, one Spirit, one Faith, is what the first inscription in the Baptistery at the Lateran says. And thus, 1,250 years later, our Founding Father, Christian Josias Bunsen, had these words inscribed on our baptismal font which is still used today. These words are an ecumenical bridge for us. We remember with gratitude his words in 1998, during the debate with Bishop Wolfgang Huber. We re-joice in the fact that you are here and are celebrating the Divine Office with us in the Christuskirche. May you feel at home! ORE, 24 March

13 CONCERT IN HONOUR OF POPE BENEDICT XVI OFFERED BY THE PATRIARCH OF MOSCOW AND ALL RUSSIA 20 May 2010 On Thursday evening, 20 May, the Holy Father was offered a concert by His Holiness Kirill I, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, as a gift for the fifth anniversary of Benedict XVI s Pontificate and for his birthday, as well as for the closure of the Days of Russian Culture and Spirituality that had been held in the Vatican. The performance took place in the Paul VI Audience Hall and concluded with an Address by the Holy Father in Italian, of which the following is a translation. Praise the name of the Lord, give praise, O servants of the Lord. Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good; sing to his name, for he is gracious! Thy name, O Lord, endures for ever; thy renown, O Lord, throughout the ages. Alleluia! Venerable Brethren, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Brothers and Sisters, We have just listened to the words of Psalm 135 [134], set to a sublime melody. They are a fine interpretation of our sentiments of praise and thanksgiving to the Lord, and likewise of our intense inner joy for this moment of encounter and friendship with our dear brothers of the Patriarchate of Moscow. On the occasion of my birthday and the fifth anniversary of my election as the Successor of Peter, His Holiness Kirill I, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, has offered me, along with the much appreciated words of His Message, this extraordinary musical event, presented by Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, President of the Department of External Relations of the Patriarchate of Moscow, and composer of the Symphony that was just performed. My profound gratitude, therefore, goes to His Holiness Patriarch Kirill. To him I extend my most brotherly and cordial greeting, as I convey my heartfelt wish that our praise of the Lord and commitment to the progress of peace and harmony among peoples can ever increasingly unite us, making us grow in the concordance of our intentions and the harmony of our actions. Thus I also wholeheartedly thank Metropolitan Hilarion, for the greeting he has so kindly wished to address to me, as well as for his constant commitment to ecumenism. I also congratulate him on his artistic genius, which we have just had the opportunity to appreciate. Along with him I warmly greet the Delegation of the Patriarchate of Moscow and the distinguished representatives of the Government of the Russian Federation. I extend a cordial greeting to the Cardinals and Bishops here present, in particular to Cardinal Walter Kasper, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, President of the Pontifical Council for Culture, who organized with their Dicasteries and in close collaboration with the representatives of the Patriarchate the Days of Russian Culture and Spirituality in the Vatican. I greet further the distinguished Ambassadors, respectable Authorities and all of you, dear friends, brothers and sisters, especially the Russian community present in Rome and in Italy, who are participating in this joyful, festive moment. Music was called upon to set the seal on this occasion in a truly exceptional, evocative way: the music of contemporary and historic Russia, performed for us so masterfully by the Russian National Orchestra, directed by Maestro Carlo Ponti; by the Moscow Synodal Choir and by the St Petersburg Horn Cappella. I offer my warmest thanks to all the artists for the talent, commitment and passion with which they draw the world s attention to the masterpieces of the Russian musical tradition. These works, which today we have heard in a meaningful performance, contain in a profound way the soul of the Russian people, and with it the Christian faith. Both find extraordinary expression precisely in the Divine Liturgy and in the liturgical singing that always accompanies it. There exists, in fact, a tight, fundamental bond between Russian music and liturgical singing. It is in and from the liturgy that a large part of the artistic genius of Russian musicians draws inspiration, as it were: thus giving life to the masterpieces that deserve to be better known in the Western world. Today we had the joy of listening to passages by the great Russian composers of the 1800 s and 1900 s, like Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov, Tschaikovsky and Rachmaninoff. These composers, especially the latter, drew from Russia s rich musical-liturgical patrimony and tradition, reworking and harmonizing it with inspirations and musical experiences from the West, nearer to modernity. I believe that Metropolitan Hilarion s piece follows in this same vein. 43

14 So, somehow the music already anticipates and resolves the impact between East and West through dialogue and synergy, and likewise that between tradition and modernity. Venerable John Paul II imagined an analogous vision of a united and harmonious Europe, when by employing the same image suggested by Vyacheslav Ivanovich Ivanov of the two lungs to which it is necessary to return in order to breathe he expressed the hope for a renewed awareness of the profound, common cultural and religious roots of the European continent. Without them, it would be as if modern Europe lacked a soul, or in any case would be marked by a reductionist and biased view. It was precisely to reflect further on these problematical issues that the Symposium was held yesterday on the theme, Orthodox and Catholics in Europe Today: The Christian Roots and the Shared Cultural Heritage of East and West, organized jointly by the Patriarchate of Moscow, the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and that for Culture. As I have affirmed many times, contemporary culture particularly that of Europe runs the risk of amnesia, of forgetting and therefore abandoning that extraordinary heritage that the Christian faith has generated and inspired. It constitutes the essential framework of European culture, and not of it alone. Beyond the religious life and the witness of many generations of believers, Europe s Christian roots in fact also encompass its invaluable cultural and artistic patrimony: the boast and precious resource of the peoples and Countries in which the Christian faith in its diverse manifestations has engaged in dialogue with culture and the arts, animating and inspiring them, fostering and promoting creativity and human genius like never before. Those roots are still alive and fruitful today, in both East and West, and they can or rather they must inspire a new humanism, a new season of authentic human progress, in order to respond effec- tively to the numerous and sometimes crucial challenges which our Christian communities and our societies must face. Above all, the first is that of secularization, which not only tends to disregard God and his design but also ends up denying human dignity itself, with a view to a society regulated solely by selfish interests. Let us return to the vision of a Europe that breathes with both lungs, to restore the spirit not only of believers, but to all the peoples of the Continent, thus promoting trust and hope by rooting them in the age-old experience of Christian faith! At this time, the consistent, generous and courageous Christian witness of believers cannot be lacking. In this way we will be able to seek a common future together, one in which freedom and dignity may be recognized as fundamental values of every man and woman, in which an openness to the Transcendent may be given worth, and in which the faith experience is considered a constitutive element of the human person. In the piece by Mussorgsky, entitled The Angel Proclaimed, we listened to the words the Angel addressed to Mary and therefore to us, too: Rejoice, all you people!. The reason for this joy is clear: Christ has risen from the tomb and he has brought the dead back to life. Dear brothers and sisters, the joy of the Risen Christ is what enlivens us, encourages and sustains us on our journey of faith and of Christian witness. Hence shall we offer true happiness and concrete hope to the world, so as to give valid reasons to have trust to humanity, to the people of Europe, whom I gladly entrust to the maternal and powerful intercession of the Virgin Mary. I renew my expression of gratitude to Patriarch Kirill, to Metropolitan Hilarion, to the Russian representatives, the orchestra, the choirs, the organizers and all here present. May the Lord s abundant Blessings descend upon all of you and upon your loved ones. ORE, 26 May