Catholics and Orthodox face the same challenges

VATICAN CITY (VIS) - Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, is leading a delegation sent by the Holy See to Istanbul to participate in celebrations marking the Feast of St. Andrew, patron of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. The Holy See and the Patriarchate exchange regular annual visits for the feast days of their respective patrons.

The visit coincides with the 20th anniversary of the election of His Holiness Bartholomew I as Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.

The Holy See delegation to this year's celebration included Cardinal Koch; Bishop Brian Farrell, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity; Father Andrea Palmieri, an official of the same dicastery, and Archbishop Antonio Lucibello, apostolic nuncio to Turkey. The group attended a divine liturgy celebrated by Bartholomew I in the patriarchal church of Fanar, then met with the Patriarch and the synodal commission that oversees relations with the Catholic Church.

Cardinal Koch gave Bartholomew I a gift and a message from the Holy Father. In the message, which was read out at the end of the Divine Liturgy, Benedict XVI recalls his most recent meeting with the Patriarch during last month's Day of Prayer for Peace in the Italian town of Assisi. "I give thanks to the Lord for having allowed me to strengthen the bonds of sincere friendship and true brotherhood which unite us, and to bear witness before the entire world to the broad vision we share," the pope said in his message.

Pope Benedict also said, "The present cultural, social, economic, political and religious circumstances place exactly the same challenges before Catholics and Orthodox. Announcing the mystery of salvation through the death and resurrection of Christ needs to undergo deep renewal in many regions, which once accepted the light but are now suffering the effects of secularization, which impoverishes man in his deepest dimension.

“Faced with this emergency we must show all mankind that we have achieved a maturity in the faith, that we are capable of coming together despite human tensions, thanks to our joint search for truth and with the awareness that the future of evangelization depends upon the witness of unity and the level of charity the Church can show."

The Pope prays that, through the intercession of Sts. Andrew, Peter and Paul, both churches may receive "the gift of unity which comes from on high."