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Photo: Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I embrace.
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CWN - Georgian Orthodox clerics refused to attend a Mass celebrated by Pope Francis in Tbilisi on Saturday, October 1.
Vatican ecumenical officials had hoped that Georgian Orthodox Patriarch Ilia II would attend the papal liturgy, after the Pontiff had joined Orthodox clerics for an ecumenical ceremony the previous day. But the Georgian Orthodox patriarchate issued a statement indicating that they would not join Catholics in worship “as long as dogmatic differences exist.”
Greg Burke, the director of the Vatican press office, disclosed that Orthodox officials had informed the papal party of their decision not to participate on late on Friday, the day before the Mass. Burke said that the Vatican accepted the decision.
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CWN - Pope Francis concluded his three-day apostolic journey to the Caucasus on October 2 with a visit to Azerbaijan.
The nation of 9.6 million is 93% Muslim and 3% Eastern Orthodox, and has fewer than 1,000 Catholics.
The Pope referred to the small numbers of Catholics during his Angelus address, delivered at the Church of the Immaculate in the Salesian Center in Baku, the nation’s capital.
“Some may think that the Pope wastes so much time: travelling so many kilometers to visit a small community of 700 people,” the Pope said. “It is a community on the peripheries. But the Pope, in this, imitates the Holy Spirit: He also descended from heaven to a small community in that closed periphery of the Cenacle.”
“And to that community, which was fearful, felt poor and perhaps persecuted or rejected, the Holy Spirit imparts fortitude, power, and bold eloquence to go forth and proclaim the name of Jesus,” the Pope continued. “And the doors of that community in Jerusalem, which were closed for fear or shame, were thrust wide open releasing the power of the Spirit.”
Earlier, in his homily during Sunday Mass in the church, the Pope described faith and service as the “weft and warp” of Christian life.
“Every carpet, and you know this well, must be made according to a weft and a warp; only with this form can the carpet be harmoniously woven,” the Pope said. “So too in the Christian life: every day it must be woven patiently, intertwining a precise weft and warp: the weft of faith and the warp of service.”
Later, at a gathering with the president and other civil authorities, the Pope called for a national self-examination 25 years after independence.
The “common effort to harmonize differences is of particular importance in our time, as it shows that it is possible to bear witness to one’s own ideas and worldview without abusing the rights of others who have different ideas and perspectives,” the Pope said. “Every ethnic or ideological identity, as with every authentic religious path, must exclude attitudes and approaches which instrumentalize their own convictions, their own identity or the name of God in order to legitimize subjugation and supremacy.”
In a subsequent meeting with the Sheikh of the Caucasus Muslims and other religious leaders, the Pope called religion “a compass that orients us to the good and steers us away from evil, which is always crouching at the door of a person’s heart.”
“We see the growing emergence of rigid and fundamentalist reactions on the part of those who, through violent words and deeds, seek to impose extreme and radical attitudes which are furthest from the living God,” the Pope continued. “In this night of conflict that we are currently enduring, may religions be a dawn of peace, seeds of rebirth amid the devastation of death, echoes of dialogue resounding unceasingly, paths to encounter and reconciliation reaching even those places where official mediation efforts seem not to have borne fruit.”
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CWN - On October 1, the second of his two days in the Caucasus nation of Georgia, Pope Francis celebrated Mass for the Catholic community, paid tribute to charity workers at a health-care clinic run by the Camillian order, and visited the Georgian Orthodox patriarchal cathedral.
A nation of 3.7 million, Georgia is 84% Eastern Orthodox, 10% Muslim, and 2% Catholic.
Some of the Pope’s most memorable remarks came during extemporaneous comments at the Latin-rite Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin in Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital.
Lamenting the pain suffered by children as a result of divorce, he said, “You do not know, dear brothers and sisters, you do not know how much children suffer, the little ones, when they witness the arguments and the separation of parents! Everything should be done to save a marriage.”
He added: "You, Irina, mentioned a great enemy to marriage today: the theory of gender. Today there is a world war to destroy marriage. Today there are ideological colonizations which destroy, not with weapons, but with ideas. Therefore, there is a need to defend ourselves from ideological colonizations."
Turning to relations with the Orthodox, he said: "Let the theologians study the abstract realities of theology. But what should I do with a friend, neighbor, an Orthodox person? Be open, be a friend. “But should I make efforts to convert him or her?” There is a very grave sin against ecumenism: proselytism. We should never proselytize the Orthodox! They are our brothers and sisters, disciples of Jesus Christ."
Earlier in the day, during Mass at Mikheil Meskhi Stadium, the Pope called upon the faithful to receive the consolation of God through “the Gospel we read every day and carry around with us, our silent prayer in adoration, confession, the Eucharist,” and then in turn to impart God’s consolation to others.
During his visit to the Svietyskhoveli Patriarchal Cathedral in Mskheta, the Pope said that Christians are called “to avoid putting first disharmony and divisions between the baptized, because what unites us is much more than what divides us.”
“The holy tunic, a mystery of unity, exhorts us to feel deep pain over the historical divisions which have arisen among Christians: these are the true and real lacerations that wound the Lord’s flesh,” he continued. “At the same time, however, ‘that unity which comes from above,’ the love of Christ which has brought us together, giving us not only his garment but his very body, urge us to not give up but rather to offer ourselves as he did (cf. Rom 12:1): they urge us to sincere charity and to mutual understanding, to bind up wounds, with a spirit of pure Christian fraternity.”
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ugcc.org.ua - (Toronto) - A little over two years ago we were gathered here in this very Canada Room to support the Sheptytsky Institute, while reflecting together on the still fresh events of the Revolution of Dignity in which the various faith communities of Ukraine worked together to support a nation in its struggle for civil society, rule of law and effective justice and true freedom. Ukrainian Greco-Catholics stood shoulder to shoulder with Roman Catholics, Protestants, the various Orthodox Churches of Ukraine, as well as Jews and Muslims. As the nights grew dark and the security troops gathered together with hired thugs to attack the peaceful people of the Maidan, we huddled together and we prayed. This prayer was accompanied by spontaneous acts of incredible love and generosity. While the news outlets focused on the bloodshed and its aftermath, what we saw at the maidan in Kyiv was humanity returned briefly to innocence after decades, even centuries, of brutality: people served each other, warmed each other, fed each other, donated food, clothing and various necessities without question as to who could ever reimburse them. People sang, some in tune, and others not so musically, but with enthusiasm. Young and old danced, musicians, poets and artists warmed the hearts of the freezing crowds with the fervor of beauty, channeled together not for destruction, but for the building of a more just society. What was the Church’s role in those amazing moments? Precisely to focus attention on the dignity of the children of God, to support them in their struggle, to keep them hopeful in the face of daunting odds, to encourage the noblest efforts and to restrain impassioned impulses. The Ukrainian Greco-Catholic Church was proud to stand with the people in their legitimate aspirations. And thus we have stood, through the ravages of foreign occupation by an aggressive neighbor that wages hybrid war and cynically “manages” information for brutal gain. This is done in an effort to destabilize Ukraine and to maintain the lie that the democratic values and human decency for which this Revolution of Dignity has stood from the beginning are nothing more than some sort of “Jewish-Fascist-American plot” to marginalize the ascending power of the so-called “Russian World.”
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CWN - Pope Francis arrived in Georgia on September 30 to begin a three-day visit to Georgia and Azerbaijan, telling Georgian Orthodox Patriarch Ilia II that he came "as a pilgrim and a friend."
In his public remarks on his first day in Georgia, the Pontiff emphasized the importance of peaceful coexistence and mutual respect, calling for friendly relations across ethnic and religious lines.
"Peaceful coexistence among all people and states in the region is the indispensable and prior condition for authentic and enduring progress," the Pope said in an address to Georgia's political leaders. Although he did not allude directly to Georgia's contentious border dispute with Russia, he did affirm the sovereignty of the country, and mentioned Georgia's distinct status as a "natural bridge between Europe and Asia, a link that facilitates communication and relations among people."
Later in the day, meeting with the Orthodox Patriarch Ilia, the Pope again spoke of peace and reconciliation, referring to the gradual warming of the formerly distant relations between the Georgian Orthodox Church and the Holy See. He praised the elderly Georgian prelate for making "the first historic visit of a Georgian Patriarch to the Vatican," to meet with Pope John Paul II in 1980.
Speaking to Orthodox clerics, the Pope said that in a divided world, it is essential for Christians to intensify "our commitment to the bonds which exist between us." He reminded them that "we are called to overcome our true enemies, who are not of flesh and blood, but rather the evil spirits from without and from within ourselves."
On Friday evening, the Pope concluded his public schedule for the day by visiting the Chaldean Catholic Church of St. Simon, to pray particularly for peace and welfare among the Chaldean faithful—those still living in their ancestral home in Iraq and the many others in the diaspora.
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- The Pope in Georgia: we are united by our common witness to the Christian tradition (Vatican press office)
- Pope Francis arrives in Georgia at start of visit to Caucasus (Vatican Radio)
- Pope meets with Georgian Orthodox Patriarch (Vatican Radio)
- Pope Francis in Georgia: prayer for peace (Vatican Radio)
- Pope Francis Outlines Paths to Peace, Christian Unity on Arrival in Georgia (National Catholic Register)
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CWN -The bishops of the Chaldean Catholic Church, an Eastern Catholic church in full communion with the Holy See, have concluded a six-day synod in Erbil, Iraq.
The prelates prayed for the liberation of lands conquered by the Islamic State and for peace in Syria and Iraq. They also agreed that priests and religious who left their dioceses without permission from their superiors had to return.
The synod said that the many priests who fled from Iraq and Syria without permission from their bishops have been "raising doubts among the faithful." The final statement from the Chaldean bishops exhorted those priests to "leave their current dioceses immediately" and regularize their status with their diocesan bishops.
The Chaldean Church has been troubled by conflicts between Chaldean communities abroad, which have welcomed priests along with other refugees from the war-torn Middle East, and bishops in Iraq and Syria, who are fighting to maintain an active Christian presence there. The conflicts have provoked tensions particularly in the large Chaldean community in southern California, where one priest, Father Noel Gorgis, has been ordered to leave a local parish.
The bishops also agreed to “changes into the text of the Chaldean Mass, recently prepared and suggested by the new Patriarchate Liturgical Committee based on scripts of 2006 and 2014,” according to the patriarchate. These changes await the approval of the Holy See.
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