Pope Francis to WCC: Show solidarity to the most vulnerable
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has called on all Christians to intensify prayer and
cooperate in service of the Gospel in a letter to the participants of the Tenth General
Assembly of the World Council of Churches, currently taking place in Busan, South
Korea.
The President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity,
Cardinal Kurt Koch, read the letter to participants on Wednesday.
Pope Francis
told the Assembly all Christians are called "to reach out to those who find themselves
in the existential peripheries of our societies and to show particular solidarity
with the most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters: the poor, the disabled, the
unborn and the sick, migrants and refugees, the elderly and the young who lack employment."
The
full text of the Pope's letter is printed below
To My Venerable
Brother Cardinal Kurt Koch President Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian
Unity
On the occasion of the Tenth General Assembly of the World Council of
Churches, I ask you to convey my cordial greetings and good wishes to all gathered
in Busan, and in a particular way to the General Secretary, Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, and
the representatives of the Christian communities present. I assure you of my close
pastoral interest in the deliberations of the Assembly and I willingly reaffirm the
commitment of the Catholic Church to continuing its long-standing cooperation with
the World Council of Churches.
The theme of the Assembly, God of Life, Lead
us to Justice and Peace, is above all a prayerful invocation of the Triune God who
draws all creation to its fulfillment through the redemptive power of the Cross of
Jesus Christ and the outpouring of the manifold gifts of the Holy Spirit. Truly,
wherever the gift of life is cherished, and justice and peace prevail, God’s Kingdom
is present and his sovereign power is already at work.
For this reason, I
trust that the present Assembly will help to consolidate the commitment of all Christ’s
followers to intensified prayer and cooperation in the service of the Gospel and the
integral good of our human family. The globalized world in which we live demands
of us a common witness to the God-given dignity of every human being and the effective
promotion of the cultural, social and legal conditions which enable individuals and
communities to grow in freedom, and which support the mission of the family as the
fundamental building-block of society, ensure a sound and integral education for the
young, and guarantee for all the untrammeled exercise of religious liberty. In fidelity
to the Gospel, and in response to the urgent needs of the present time, we are called
to reach out to those who find themselves in the existential peripheries of our societies
and to show particular solidarity with the most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters:
the poor, the disabled, the unborn and the sick, migrants and refugees, the elderly
and the young who lack employment.
Conscious that the soul of ecumenism
remains authentic conversion, holiness and prayer (cf. Unitatis Redintegratio, 8),
I pray that the General Assembly will contribute to a new impulse of vitality and
vision on the part of all committed to the sacred cause of Christian unity, in fidelity
to the Lord’s will for his Church (cf. Jn 17:21) and in openness to the promptings
of the Holy Spirit. Upon all gathered in Busan I invoke the abundant blessings of
Almighty God, source of all life and of every spiritual gift.
From the Vatican,
4 October 2013, Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi