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Photo: Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I embrace.
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VATICAN CITY, 4 DEC 2009 (VIS) - The Holy Father today received in audience His Beatitude Anastas, archbishop of Tirana, Durres and All Albania, who was accompanied by other representatives of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Albania.
"As is well known", said the Pope in his English-language address to the group, "Illyricum received the Gospel in apostolic times. Since then, Christ's saving message has borne fruit in your country down to our own day. As the very earliest writings of your culture bear witness, through the survival of an ancient Latin baptismal formula along with a Byzantine hymn about the Lord's Resurrection, the faith of our Christian forefathers left wonderful and indelible traces in the first lines of the history, literature and arts of your people.
"Yet", he added, "the most impressive witness is surely always found in life itself. During the latter half of the past century, Christians in Albania, both Orthodox and Catholic, kept the faith alive there in spite of an extremely repressive and hostile atheistic regime; and, as is well known, many Christians paid cruelly for that faith with their lives".
The Holy Father went on: "The fall of that regime has happily given way to the reconstruction of the Catholic and Orthodox communities in Albania". In this context he praised the archbishop's missionary activity, "particularly in the reconstruction of places of worship, the formation of the clergy and the catechetical work now being done, a movement of renewal which Your Beatitude has rightly described as 'Ngjallja' (Resurrection).
"Since it acquired its freedom, the Orthodox Church of Albania has been able to participate fruitfully in the international theological dialogue between Catholics and Orthodox. Your commitment in this regard happily mirrors the fraternal relations between Catholics and Orthodox in your country and offers inspiration to the entire Albanian people, demonstrating how it is possible for fellow Christians to live in harmony.
"In this light, we would do well to emphasise the elements of faith which our Churches share: a common profession of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan creed; a common Baptism for the remission of sins and for incorporation into Christ and the Church; the legacy of the first ecumenical councils; the real if imperfect communion which we already share, and the common desire and collaborative efforts to build upon what already exists".
Benedict XVI then went on to mention two initiatives currently underway in Albania: the establishment of the Inter-confessional Biblical Society and the creation of the Committee for Inter-religious Relations, describing them as " timely efforts to promote mutual understanding and tangible co-operation, not only between Catholics and Orthodox, but also among Christians, Muslims and Bektashi".
Closing his remarks the Pope expressed his joy at the "spiritual renewal" of the Albanian people, and gave assurances to Archbishop Anastas that the Catholic Church "will do all she can to offer a common witness of brotherhood and peace, and to pursue with you a renewed commitment to the unity of our Churches".
AC/ALBANIA/ANASTAS VIS 091204 (500)
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CWNews.com - Russia and the Holy See have agreed to establish full diplomatic relations. The agreement was announced on December 3 after Pope Benedict XVI met with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev.
Since 1990, Russia has maintained a mission at the Vatican. That representation will now be upgraded to a fully accredited embassy, and an apostolic nunciature will be established in Moscow.
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CWNews.com - Eritrea’s human rights record came under the scrutiny of the United Nation Human Rights Council on December 1. Some 20,000 political prisoners there-- including 3,000 Christians-- are imprisoned by a regime known for torturing its opponents.
Colonized by Italy, Eritrea was awarded to Ethiopia in 1952 and eventually annexed, leading to a decades-long civil war. Eritrea regained its independence in 1993 under the leadership of Isaias Afwerki, a Marxist who received his military training in Mao Zedong’s China. Afwerki remains the totalitarian nation’s leader today. Reporters Without Borders deems Eritrea’s treatment of press freedom the worst in the world.
A longtime Christian area-- local bishops were part of an Oriental Orthodox Church that region ceased communion with the Holy See following the Council of Chalcedon in 451-- the nation of 5.5 million is now half Muslim, 30% Eritrean Orthodox, and less than 4% Eastern Catholic. The government recognizes the existence only of Islam, the Eritrean Orthodox Church, the Catholic Church, and the Lutheran Church; according to the State Department, it systematically arrests and imprisons other believers, in some cases reportedly making their conversion to Eritrean Orthodoxy, obtained under torture, as a condition for release.
Official recognition does not provide immunity from persecution. In 2005, the government appointed a layman to administer the Eritrean Orthodox Church, and the following year, the Church’s patriarch was deposed. In 1998, the government took over Catholic schools and health clinics; last year, it took over all Catholic Church property in the nation’s capital.
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by the grace of God, Patriarch of Antioch and of All the East,
of Alexandria and of Jerusalem,
to their lordships, the bishops, members of the venerable Holy Synod,
to our dear priests,
and to our sons and daughters in Jesus Christ,
clergy and people, called holy, and to all those who are called
by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their and our God,
"grace be unto you and peace from our God and Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."
(I Corinthians 1: 3)
"Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek." (Psalm 110: 4; Hebrews 5: 6)
"Thou art a priest forever!" so the Church tells the newly ordained priest and thus liturgical hymns address Christ on the day of his glorious birth, Christmas day, "Thou art a priest forever." Saint Peter says, "Christ is the bishop of our souls." (1 Peter 2: 25) Icons, like that shown on the envelope of this letter or above the bishop's throne, represent Christ the High Priest dressed in priestly and pontifical robes.
The Feast of the Nativity is the feast of that High Priest, who alone enters the Holy of Holies, there to accomplish our salvation and redemption.
That is why we wished this Christmas Letter to have priests as its subject, since this year is dedicated to them.
We offer our cordial Christmas good wishes to all those who participate with us in this great gift of holy priesthood, our venerable brother bishops and our beloved sons, the priests. This grace gives the priest an authority above that of angels, as Saint John Chrysostom says[1]. "His soul ought to be purer than the very sunbeams, in order that the Holy Spirit may not leave him desolate.[2]" What a level of purity the priestly soul must attain to be able to welcome the Holy Spirit!
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02.12.2009, [16:27] // UAOC // RISU.ORG.UA
KYIV — The head of the Theological-Canonical Committee of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC), Archbishop Yoan (Modzalevskyi) of Uman, commented on the Address of the Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) to the faithful of November 24, which stressed that unification is only possible within the UOC-MP and that “schismatic groups” should first repent the sin of the schism. The archbishop of the UAOC noted that he is prepared to accept the first condition whereas the second one requires a “compromise solution” to be found. RISU’s Ukrainian-language web site posted this story on December 1, 2009.
“I am ready to accept the first statement. Really, as long as the UAOC and UOC-KP [Kyivan Patriarchate] have not received canonical recognition, there are no grounds to talk about unification as equal parties,” said the hierarch.
At the same time, he stressed that the demand for repentance of the schism is not received well. “We are ready to admit our canonical mistakes, repent them as we see that it was what led our church to the condition of artificial isolation from world Orthodoxy. But we are not ready to recognize our church structure as a “schism.” We are not schismatics either according to our ecclesiological or canonical consciousness or our way of church life. One should distinguish between a schism and a church divide,” says the hierarch’s commentary given to the “Religion in Ukraine” web site.
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CWNews.co - On the eve of a meeting between Pope Benedict XVI and Russia’s President Dmitri Medvedev, there are new signs of substantial progress in relations between the Holy See and the Orthodox Patriarchate of Moscow, and hint that a “summit” meeting between the Pope and Russian Patriarch Kirill might be under discussion. The Russian Orthodox Patriarchate of Moscow has published a collection of speeches by Pope Benedict XVI, and a government official in Belarus has suggested that his country might be an appropriate place for the much-anticipated ecumenical summit.
The new book produced by the Moscow patriarchate, Europe Spiritual Homeland, is a collection of talks by Pope Benedict over the past decade—both before and after his election as Roman Pontiff—addressing the spiritual crisis in Europe. The book, published in Italian and Russian, carries an introduction by Archbishop Hilarion, the chief ecumenical officer of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Since the January election of Kirill to succeed Alexei II as Patriarch of Moscow, ecumenical contacts with the Vatican have increased dramatically. The new Russian Patriarch has strong personal ties with Pope Benedict; he met with the Pontiff on three different occasions while serving as the chief ecumenical official for the Moscow patriarchate. Patriarch Kirill has expressed a keen interest in cooperating with the Catholic Church, especially in the struggle against secularism in Europe: the topic of the new collection of papal speeches. On the same day’s a the book’s introduction, the director of religious affairs for the government of Belarus told reporters that his country might be an ideal location for a meeting between Pope Benedict and Patriarch Kirill. At a press conference in Minsk, Leonid Gulyako said that relations between the Orthodox and Catholic churches have always been warm in Belarus. The country’s President Alexander Lukashenko had issued an invitation for Pope Benedict to visit Belarus during an April meeting at the Vatican.
Although there has been no public discussion of any plan for a meeting between the Pope and the Russian Patriarch, officials of both the Vatican and the Moscow patriarchate have suggested in the past that such a meeting would probably take place neither in Rome nor in Moscow but at some “neutral” location.
The visit to Rome by President Medvedev is significant in itself, since the Russian leader has advanced the possibility that Russia might open a full embassy to the Holy See. (The Russian Federation currently has a special diplomatic representative at the Vatican.) Medvedev—who was baptized into the Orthodox Church as an adult, and whose wife Svetlana Medvedev is a known for her devotion to the Orthodox Church—could also serve as an intermediary in futhering talks between the Holy See and the Moscow patriarchate.
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