Pope Francis says "Faithfulness to one's own originality is what makes the symphonic richness of the Eastern Churches." FULL TEXT

ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS

TO PARTICIPANTS IN THE PLENARY ASSEMBLY
OF THE CONGREGATION FOR THE EASTERN CHURCHES

Sala Clementina
Friday, February 18, 2022

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Dear brothers and sisters, good morning and welcome!

I thank Cardinal Sandri for the words of greeting and introduction; and I thank each of you for being there, especially those who come from afar.

This morning you prayed before the Confession of the Apostle Peter, renewing together the profession of faith: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God". The same gesture that we made before the Mass at the beginning of the pontificate, to show, as Pope Benedict XV said, that "in the Church of Jesus Christ, which is neither Latin, Greek, nor Slav, but Catholic there is no discrimination between his children and that all, Latins, Greeks, Slavs and other nationalities have the same importance "(Enc. Dei Providentis, May 1, 1917). Our grateful memory goes to him, who is the founder of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches and of the Pontifical Oriental Institute, one hundred years after his death. He denounced the incivility of the war as a "useless massacre". His warning went unheeded by the Heads of Nations engaged in the First World War. How unheeded was the appeal of St. John Paul II to avert the conflict in Iraq.

As in this moment, in which there are so many wars everywhere, this appeal both of the Popes and of the men and women of good will is unheard. It seems that the greatest prize for peace should be given to wars: a contradiction! We are attached to wars, and this is tragic. Humanity, which prides itself on moving forward in science, in thought, in so many beautiful things, goes backwards in weaving peace. He is champion in warfare. And this puts us all to shame. We must pray and ask for forgiveness for this attitude.

We hoped there would be no need to repeat similar words in the third millennium; yet humanity still seems to be groping in darkness: we have witnessed the massacres of conflicts in the Middle East, in Syria and Iraq; to those in the Ethiopian region of Tigrai; and menacing winds still blow across the steppes of Eastern Europe, lighting the fuses and fires of weapons and leaving the hearts of the poor and innocent cold, these do not count. And meanwhile the drama of Lebanon continues, which by now leaves many people without bread; young people and adults have lost hope and leave those lands. Yet they are the mother country of the Eastern Catholic Churches: there they have developed by preserving millenary traditions, and many of you, Members of the Dicastery, are its children and heirs.

Your daily life is therefore like a mixture of the precious gold dust of your past and the witness of heroic faith of many in the present, together with the mud of the miseries for which we are also responsible and the pain that is caused to you by external forces. Or again you are seeds placed on the stems and branches of centuries-old plants, carried by the wind to unthinkable borders: Eastern Catholics have been living in distant continents for decades, they have crossed seas and oceans and crossed plains. Eparchies have already been established in Canada, the United States, Latin America, Europe, Oceania, and many others are entrusted at least for the moment to the Latin Bishops who coordinate pastoral action through the priests sent according to the correct procedures by their respective Heads. of the Church, Patriarchs,sui iuris.

For this reason your works have dealt with evangelization, which constitutes the identity of the Church in all its parts, indeed, the vocation of every baptized person. And for the mission we must listen more to the richness of the various traditions. I am thinking, for example, of the itinerary of the catechumenate of adults, which provides for the celebration of the sacraments of Christian initiation in a unitary form: a custom that in the Eastern Churches is also preserved and practiced for children. In both paths the importance of a wise mystagogical catechesis is understood, which accompanies the baptized of all ages to a mature and joyful belonging to the Christian community. In the Latin Church we lack this mystagogical catechesis. On this path the various ministries in the Church are precious, as well as harmony in relations with men and women religious who work according to the charism that is proper even in your contexts. You have focused on all these aspects in these days.

There is an experience in which the "clay" of our humanity allows itself to be shaped, not by changing opinions or by the necessary sociological analyzes, but by the Word and the Spirit of the Risen One. This experience is the liturgy. And this also makes us think of the synodal journey, indeed, of the synodal journey. The synodal path is not a parliament, it is not telling us different opinions and then making a summary or a vote, no. The synodal path is to walk together under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and you, in your Churches, have Synods, ancient synodal traditions, and you are witnesses of this. There is the Spirit, in synodality, and when there is no Spirit there is only a parliament or opinion poll, but not the Synod. This experience - I said - is heaven on earth, and this is given in the liturgy, as the East especially likes to repeat. But the beauty of oriental rites is far from being an oasis of escape or conservation. The liturgical assembly recognizes itself as such not because it convenes itself, but because it listens to the voice of an Other, remaining addressed to him, and for this very reason it feels the urgency to go to the brother and sister bringing the announcement of Christ. Even those traditions that preserve the use of the iconostasis, with the royal door, or the veil that hides the sanctuary in some moments of the rite, teach us that these architectural or ritual elements do not convey the idea of ​​God's distance, but to the on the contrary they exalt the mystery of condescension - of The liturgical assembly recognizes itself as such not because it convenes itself, but because it listens to the voice of an Other, remaining addressed to him, and for this very reason it feels the urgency to go to the brother and sister bringing the announcement of Christ. Even those traditions that preserve the use of the iconostasis, with the royal door, or the veil that hides the sanctuary in some moments of the rite, teach us that these architectural or ritual elements do not convey the idea of ​​God's distance, but to the on the contrary they exalt the mystery of condescension - of The liturgical assembly recognizes itself as such not because it convenes itself, but because it listens to the voice of an Other, remaining addressed to him, and for this very reason it feels the urgency to go to the brother and sister bringing the announcement of Christ. Even those traditions that preserve the use of the iconostasis, with the royal door, or the veil that hides the sanctuary in some moments of the rite, teach us that these architectural or ritual elements do not convey the idea of ​​God's distance, but to the on the contrary they exalt the mystery of condescension - of syncatabasi - in which the Word came and comes into the world.

The Liturgical Conference for the 25th anniversary of the Instruction on the application of the liturgical prescriptions of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches is an opportunity to get to know each other within the liturgical commissions of the various sui iuris Churches; it is an invitation to walk together with the Dicastery and its Consultors, according to the path indicated by the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council. On this journey, it is very good for each member of the one and symphonic Catholic Church to always listen to the other traditions, to their research and reform itineraries, each one however preserving its own originality. Faithfulness to one's own originality is what makes the symphonic richness of the Eastern Churches. For example, we can ask ourselves about the possible introduction of editions of the liturgy in the languages ​​of the countries where the faithful have spread, but on the form of the celebration it is necessary to live unity according to what is established by the Synods and approved by the See. Apostolic, avoiding liturgical particularisms which, in reality, they manifest divisions of another kind within their respective Churches. Furthermore, let us not forget that the brothers of the Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox Churches look at us: even if we cannot sit at the same Eucharistic table, nevertheless we almost always celebrate and pray the same liturgical texts. Let us therefore be attentive to experiments that can harm the path towards visible unity of all Christ's disciples. The world needs the witness of communion: if we give scandal with liturgical disputes - and unfortunately there have been some recently -, we play the game of the one who is the master of division. however we almost always celebrate and pray the same liturgical texts. Let us therefore be attentive to experiments that can harm the path towards visible unity of all Christ's disciples. The world needs the witness of communion: if we give scandal with liturgical disputes - and unfortunately there have been some recently -, we play the game of the one who is the master of division. however we almost always celebrate and pray the same liturgical texts. Let us therefore be attentive to experiments that can harm the path towards visible unity of all Christ's disciples. The world needs the witness of communion: if we give scandal with liturgical disputes - and unfortunately there have been some recently -, we play the game of the one who is the master of division.

Dear brothers and sisters, I thank you for your work these days. I am always close to you in prayer. Bring my encouragement and blessing to your members. And please don't forget to pray for me. Thank you.