Pope: Ecumenism, close to the Churches of Jerusalem

(January 24, 2011) The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity this year is an opportunity to rally around the "Churches and Ecclesial Communities of Jerusalem, gathered together in an ecumenical spirit”, said Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday, addressing the faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square for his weekly midday ‘Angelus’ prayer with them. The reason for this closeness is twofold: first, because the theme of the January 18 to 25 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity "is a passage from Acts of the Apostles, which the Pope said points out to the four pillars at the base of the one Christian community in Jerusalem : 'United in the teaching of the Apostles, fellowship, breaking of bread and prayer.' The second reason is that the issue has been proposed by the same Churches and ecclesial communities of Jerusalem. The Pope said that Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant Christians of the Holy Land and the Middle East have to face many trials. Their service is therefore more precious, confirmed by a witness that, in some cases, even amounts to the sacrifice of life, the Pope said. “So while we welcome with joy the insights offered by the communities living in Jerusalem, we gather around them, and this becomes for all an additional factor of communion." "Each division in the Church is an insult to Christ," the pontiff said. At the same time it "is always in Him, the only Head and Lord, that we may find ourselves together, through the inexhaustible power of his grace."