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Last Updated: 19 February 2013

Affirms Value of Eastern Tradition and Union With Holy See

VATICAN CITY, MAY 28, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI received in audience the leader of the Syro-Malankars, and encouraged him to maintain both the union with the Apostolic See and the specifically Eastern features of that tradition.

This morning in the Vatican, the Pope received Major Archbishop Issac Cleemis Thottunkal, major archbishop of Trivandrum of the Syro-Malankars, India.

The archbishop was elected to his current office by the Synod of the Syro-Malankar Church on Feb. 8.

The Holy Father told him: "Now the universal Church, together with all those who belong to your ecclesial tradition, is counting upon Your Beatitude to ensure that the Malankar community can proceed along a twofold path.

"On the one hand, through faithfulness to the Apostolic See you will always participate fully in the universal breath of the one Church of Christ; on the other hand your fidelity to the specifically Eastern features of your tradition will enable the whole Church to benefit from what in his manifold wisdom the Spirit is saying to the Churches.'"

The Pontiff said: "Now is a time of new evangelization, a time of constantly renewed and convinced dialogue with all our brothers and sisters who share our Christian faith, a time of respectful and fruitful encounter between religions and cultures for the good of all, and especially the poorest of the poor.

"Our commitment to evangelization needs to be constantly renewed, as we strive to build peace, in justice and solidarity, for the whole human family."

Code: ZE07052803

Date: 2007-05-28

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Last Updated: 19 February 2013

Tells Them People Are Businesses' Most Important Resource

VATICAN CITY, MAY 28, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Workers are the most precious resource of any business, explained Benedict XVI to young entrepreneurs.

The Pope met with young people from Confindustria, the General Confederation of Italian Industry, on Saturday, and told them that as entrepreneurs they are not only the future of the Italian economy, but also the present.

During his address, the Holy Father underlined that "human life, and the values of human life, must always be the foundation and the final aim of the economy."

As a result, "all business enterprises are to be considered primarily as groups of people, whose rights and dignity must be respected," he added.

Citing the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, the Pontiff noted that business managers must see beyond the economic objectives of a company. "It is also their precise duty to respect concretely the human dignity of those who work within the company," he said.

These workers, added Benedict XVI, are the "most precious resource of any business," and "the decisive factor of production."

He continued, "In important decisions concerning strategy and finances, in decisions to buy or sell, to resize, close or to merge a site, financial and commercial criteria must not be the only considerations made."

The Pope affirmed that the effort must be made "for working activity to become once again an area in which people can realize their potential and make the most of their individual capacities and genius."

"And it depends upon you," he said, "dear business people, to create the most favorable conditions to bring this about."

Code: ZE07052804

Date: 2007-05-28

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Last Updated: 19 February 2013

Interview 28 May 2007 - In anticipation of a regular meeting of the Joint Orthodox-Catholic Theological Commission to take place in Italy, the Russian Orthodox Church representative to European international organizations Bishop Hilarion of Vienna and Austria, in his interview with the Interfax-Religion, has warned in advance that at the forthcoming meeting the Moscow Patriarchate intends to assert its own view of the problem of primacy and conciliarity in church authority.

Click here to read the transcript of the interview at Interfax-Religion.com (a new browser window will open).

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Last Updated: 19 February 2013

chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it

by Sandro Magister

ROMA, May 28, 2007 – In Iraq’s bloody war, which is being fought primarily by Muslim groups against other Muslims and “infidels,” the Iraqi Christians are the only ones who are not using weapons or bombs, not even to defend themselves. There aren’t any armed Christian militias in Iraq. In fact, they are the most vulnerable and persecuted group. In 2000, they were more than a million and a half, 3 percent of the population. Today it is estimated that fewer than 500,000 remain.

In an official statement released on May 24, the Iraqi government promised protection for the Christian families threatened and chased out by terrorist Islamic groups. Some Muslim exponents have expressed solidarity. The government’s action – which, however, is devoid of concrete initiatives – follows the dramatic appeal issued on May 6 by Emmanuel III Delly, patriarch of the Chaldeans, the most numerous Iraqi Catholic community, in the homily for the Mass celebrated in the church of Mar Qardagh, in Erbil, Kurdistan. 

Click here to read the story at chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it (new window will open).

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Last Updated: 19 February 2013

26.05.2007, [09:25] // Speech, greeting, press release // RISU.ORG.UA

Lviv – During a press conference at zaxid.net on 23 May 2007, Fr. Borys Gudziak, Ph.D., rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University in western Ukrainian Lviv, expressed his ideas about issues like the church and politics and the role of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) in the creation of a single national Ukrainian church.

Fr. Gudziak stressed: “Since modern politics is ruining souls, it is necessary that the church be ‘involved’ in it, but its role and mission should be precisely defined. The church should call politicians and citizens to general human moral values and it should not join some party or candidate. The principle is very simple, but its implementation should be very delicate.”

The rector noted: “I think in recent decades the hierarchs of the UGCC have adhered to this principle very precisely and fruitfully. However, there is always much room for improvement.” According to Fr. Gudziak, Patriarch Lubomyr (Husar), head of the UGCC, has taken the right position on the matter.

Regarding the role of the UGCC in the creation of a single national Ukrainian church, Fr. Gudziak said: “I can say with certainty that the UGCC is able and has been called to further the union of Christians in Ukraine. Even though there is still a long way to go to reach unity, the UGCC has taken the right steps to achieve this goal.”

Also, the rector expressed his ideas about the situation with Soviet monuments: “There are monuments which may actually destroy the dignity not only of every Ukrainian but also of every human being. I consider it a moral paradox that on the land where communism and its terrorist ideology killed millions of people there may still be monuments to Lenin. I am a great supporter of creating positive historical memory and proposing to our society new monuments to people and events, highlighting universal Christian virtues, which will not have to be removed in 20 or 50 years.”

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Sumy-Kyiv – A delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad (ROCA), headed by Metropolitan Lavr of New York, head of the ROCA, arrived in Ukraine on 23 May 2007. The ROCA on 17 May signed an act of canonical communion with the Russian Orthodox Church.

In northern Ukraine’s Sumy Region, on the Ukrainian-Russian border, the delegation was received by Bishop Luka of Vasylky, vicar of the Kyiv Metropolitanate and pastor of the Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God in the Hlynska Hermitage, which was visited by the metropolitan and clergy of the ROCA and Archbishop Herman of Kursk and Rylsk.

Metropolitan Lavr noted: “Now I feel that I have come to the Ukrainian land, the holy places of which I visited many times before unofficially. It has been a long-awaited visit, during which we would like to get acquainted with the life of the Orthodox church in Ukraine and honor the great sanctuaries, the Kyivan Monastery of the Caves and the Pochaiv Lavra [Major Monastery].”

On 24 May 2007 at the Dormition Church of the Kyivan Monastery of the Caves, the guests attended a Liturgy headed by Metropolitan Volodymyr (Sabodan), head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), and Metropolitan Lavr, and concelebrated by Metropolitan Onufrii of Chernivtsi and Bukovyna, Archbishop Auhustyn of Lviv and Halych, Archbishop Pavlo, superior of the Kyivan Monastery of the Caves, Bishop Hurii of Zhytomyr and Novohrad-Volynskyi, Bishop Antonii of Boryspil, and numerous priests.

Metropolitan Volodymyr stressed the importance of uniting the divided parts of the Russian church. Metropolitan Lavr said that the faithful of the ROCA have long waited for a chance to pray together in the most ancient church of Kyivan Rus, the Kyivan Monastery of the Caves. In his commentary on the visit of the head of the ROCA to Ukraine, Metropolitan Onufrii, head of the Canonical Commission at the Synod of the UOC-MP, said that it has been a truly epochal event, which the faithful of both churches had awaited for almost 80 years.

As part of the visit the delegation is going to visit Kyiv holy places, meet students of Kyivan spiritual schools, and go to the Pochaiv Lavra.

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