Catholic Committee for Cultural Collaboration celebrates 50^th anniversary

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis received in audience members of the Catholic Committee for Cultural Collaboration which celebrates its 50^th anniversary this year.

The audience was attended by Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, who provided the opening remarks. Also present were members of the management committee of the board which comprises the principle benefactors, and scholarship students who are studying in Rome.

“The path of reconciliation and renewed fraternity between the Churches,” said the Pope in his address, “required the experience of friendship and sharing that arises from the mutual understanding between members of different Churches, and in particular the young people initiated into sacred ministry.”

He went on to praise the work of the committee, and thanked the many benefactors who have supported its work. He assured those present that he would remember them in prayer, and asked for their prayers in exchange.

The Catholic Committee for Cultural Collaboration was established on 27 July 1964 by Pope Paul VI as one of the initiatives aimed at “reestablishing fraternal ties between the Catholic Church and the venerable Eastern Churches”.

The committee promotes the exchange of students between the Catholic Church, and the Orthodox Churches of the Byzantine tradition and the Oriental Orthodox Churches, who wish to follow theological studies or other ecclesiastical disciplines at Catholic or Orthodox institutions.