Pope receives Members of the Catholic Committee for Cultural Collaboration
Vatican City, 11 January 2014: Pope Francis met on Saturday members of the Catholic
Committee for Cultural collaboration with Orthodox churches and Eastern Orthodox churches.
The Committee marks the 50th anniversary this year. Recalling the setting
up of the Committee, Pope Francis said: the Second Vatican Council was not yet completed
when Paul VI instituted the Catholic Committee for Cultural Collaboration. The path
of reconciliation and renewed brotherhood between the Churches, wonderfully marked
by the first historic meeting between Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras. The
meeting, said the Pontiff, showed the need for friendship and sharing experiences
that were born from the mutual understanding between members of different Churches,
and particularly among young people initiated to the sacred ministry. Thus was born,
on the initiative of the then Eastern Section of the Secretariat for Promoting Christian
Unity, this Committee. Pope Francis said that the Committee at that time as it
is now, with the help of generous benefactors, distributes grants to clergy and laity,
from the Orthodox Churches and the Eastern Orthodox Churches, who wish to complete
their theological studies at academic institutions of the Catholic Church, and supports
other projects of ecumenical cooperation.
Pope Francis expressed his deep gratitude
to all the donors who have supported and support the Committee, and also to the members
of the Management Board who have gathered in Rome for their annual meeting.
While
addressing to the students who are completing their theological studies in Rome, Pope
Francis said that their stay in our midst is important for the dialogue between the
Churches of today and especially tomorrow. He told them that the Bishop of Rome loves
them.
The Committee was established July 27, 1964 with the Letter of Pope
Paul VI to Cardinal Augustin Bea, the first President of the Secretariat for Christian
Unity (later the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity), as part of efforts
to "reestablish fraternal ties between the Catholic Church and the venerable Churches
of the East," with the task of "promoting the sincere desire of knowledge and understanding
with each other, based on respect and mutual charity."
In the last 50 years,
hundreds of Orthodox students have been able to complete their studies at academic
institutions of the Catholic Church. Today, there are fifty students attending the
Pontifical Universities of Rome and five students at the Institut Catholique in Paris.
The Committee has also funded several collaborative projects, especially in Russia,
Greece, Ukraine, Belarus and Lebanon. Source: VR Sedoc