Patriarchate Romania
Pope
Francis on Friday met with Patriarch Daniel and the Permanent Synod of
the Romanian Orthodox Church telling them he comes ‘as a pilgrim
desirous of seeing the Lord’s face in the faces of my Brothers.’
In his address to the Permanent Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church, the
Pope spoke of the Lord’s resurrection, as being at “the very heart of
the apostolic preaching handed down and preserved by our Churches.”
Suffering and sacrifice
He noted that in Romania, as in so many other places nowadays, many
had experienced the Passover of death and resurrection in the form of
persecution. Pope Francis remembered those who were “martyrs and
confessors of the faith”.
What these people suffered, said the Pontiff, “even to the sacrifice
of their lives, is too precious an inheritance to be disregarded or
tarnished. It is a shared inheritance, he added, and it summons us to
remain close to our brothers and sisters who share it.”
Speaking to those present, the Pope recalled Pope John Paul II’s
address to this Holy Synod twenty years ago with the words. “I have come
to contemplate the Face of Christ etched in your Church; I have come to
venerate this suffering Face, the pledge to you of new hope”.
Pope Francis told them that he too had come to Romania “as a pilgrim
desirous of seeing the Lord’s Face in the faces of my Brothers.”
Unity and Remembrance
Pope Francis also recalled the words of Patriarch Teoctist in
Bucharest over twenty years ago “Unite, Unite”. The Pope described this
proclamation as inaugurating a new time: “the time of journeying
together in the rediscovery and revival of the fraternity that even now
unites us.”
“The remembrance of steps taken and completed together, he said,
encourages us to advance to the future in the awareness – certainly – of
our differences, but above all in thanksgiving for a family atmosphere
to be rediscovered and a memory of communion to be revived, that, like a
lamp, can light up the steps of our journey.”
Journeying together
Journeying together also means listening to the Lord, Pope Francis
pointed out, “especially in these more recent years, when our world has
experienced rapid social and cultural changes.”
He continued by saying that, “technological development and economic
prosperity may have benefited many, yet even more have remained
hopelessly excluded, while a globalization that tends to level
differences has contributed to uprooting traditional values and
weakening ethics and social life, which more recently has witnessed a
growing sense of fear that, often skillfully stoked, leads to attitudes
of rejection and hate.”
A New Pentecost
The Pope concluded that the, “journey comes to an end, as it did in
Emmaus, with the insistent prayer that the Lord remain with us.” He said
that, the path before us leads from Easter to Pentecost: from that
Paschal dawn of unity that emerged here twenty years ago, we have set
out towards a new Pentecost.”
Our own journey has begun anew, Pope Francis emphasized, “with the
certainty that we are brothers and sisters walking side by side, sharing
the faith grounded in the resurrection of the one Lord.”
Photography courtesy of Basilica.ro / Mircea FlorescuEnglish text: Vatican News