Pope welcomes Catholic Committee for Cultural Collaboration
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Saturday received in audience members of the Catholic
Committee for Cultural Collaboration, which celebrates its 50th 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, Orthodox Churches of the Byzantine tradition and Eastern Orthodox Churches,
who wish to study theology or other ecclesiastical disciplines at Catholic or Orthodox
institutions.
Listen to Ann Schneible's report:
Please
find below a full translation of the Pope’s remarks:
Dear Cardinal, dear
brothersbishops, dear brothers and sisters,
I meet with you at the beginning
of this year which marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Committee
for the Cultural Collaboration with the Orthodox Churches and the Oriental Orthodox
Churches. In particular, I greet Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of the Pontifical Council
for the Promotion of Christian Unity, under whose direct responsibility the Committee
acts – and I also thank you for your words – as well as Monsignor Johan Bonny, Bishop
of Anversa, president of the Committee.
The Second Vatican Council had not
yet concluded when Paul VI instituted the Catholic Committee for Cultural Collaboration.
The path of reconciliation and renewed fraternity between the Churches, wonderfully
marked by the first historic meeting between Pope Paul VI and the Ecumenical Patriarch
Athenagoras, 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.
Thus, on the initiative of the
Eastern Section of the then Secretariat for the Promotion of Christian Unity, this
Committee was born. This [Committee], then as now, with the help of generous benefactors,
distributes academic scholarships to clerics and laity from the Orthodox Churches
and the Eastern Orthodox Churches who desire to complete their theological studies
at academic institutions of the Catholic Church, and supports other projects of ecumenical
collaboration.
I express my deep gratitude to all the benefactors who have
supported and [continue to] support the Committee. With gratitude, I greet the members
of the Management Committee, convened in Rome for their annual meeting. Without your
valued contribution this work would not be possible. Therefore, I encourage you to
continue in the action that you perform. May God bless you, and may He make fruitful
your appreciated collaboration.
A special greeting to you, dear students, who
are completing your theological studies in Rome. Your stay in our midst is important
for the dialogue between the Churches of today and, above all, tomorrow. I thank God
because he has granted me this beautiful opportunity to meet you and tell you that
the Bishop of Rome loves you. I hope that each of you can have a joyful experience
of the Church and the city of Rome, enriched [spiritually and culturally], and that
you do not see yourselves as guests, but as brothers among brothers. I am certain,
that for your part, you by your presence you enrich the academic communities in which
you study.
Dear brothers and sisters, [be assured that you will be remembered
in my prayer, and I ask you to pray for me and my ministry.] May the Lord bless you
and the Madonna protect you.