Through your faces I see your Churches: Pope to Patriarchs & Major Abps

Vatican city, 21 Nov 2013: Pope Francis met the Patriarchs and Major Archbishops of the Eastern Catholic Churches on Thursday morning. While addressing them Pope Francis said ‘for the first time I have the opportunity to speak with the fathers and leaders of the Eastern Catholic Churches. Through your faces I see your Churches’.
Assuring his closeness and his prayer for the flock they are entrusted with, the Pope said, ‘we need to learn together and put in practice to serve the Lord faithfully, his Church and all humanity.
Affirming that the meeting gave him ‘the opportunity to renew the great esteem for the spiritual heritage of the Christian East’, Pope Francis recalled what Pope Benedict XVI in his Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in the Middle East, ‘you are "the vigilant guardians and servants of ecclesial communion"…. Be inserted into the communion of the whole Body of Christ makes us aware of the duty to strengthen unity and solidarity among the various Patriarchal Synods".

Our testimony to be credible, we are called to always seek "justice, godliness, faith, love, patience and gentleness", to a sober lifestyle in the image of Christ, who stripped himself to enrich us with his poverty; untiring zeal and charity. Pope highlighted the importance of taking care of the marginalized. He also exhorted them to stand by their priests in need of understanding and support, and lead them through ‘good example’ in things pertaining to God, as well as transparency in the management of assets and concern for each weakness and need.

Following Pope Francis’s reflections, each Bishop spoke on "The situation of Eastern Christians, "referring to the Middle East, Eastern Europe and India, and their diaspora communities. Among them were India’s Cardinal George Alencherry, Major Archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Church, and Cardinal Baselios Cleemis Thottunkal, Major Archbishop of Trivandrum of the Syro-Malankara Church.

The Patriarchs and Major Archbishops of the Eastern Catholic Churches are in Rome as part of the Plenary Assembly of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches on "The Eastern Catholic Churches 50 years after the Second Vatican Council", 19-22 November 2013. The Plenary Assembly of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches will continue until Friday, and the results will then be presented to the Holy Father.

The Patriarchs and the Fathers of the Eastern Catholic Churches will join the Holy Father on Sunday, November 24, Solemnity of Christ the King, to the closing Eucharistic celebration of the Year of Faith, in St. Peter’s square in the Vatican.
Source: VR Sedoc