Sts Peter and Paul – Page 2

Remembering the Church of Rome

May God grant us to achieve as soon as possible the full unity of all believers in Christ. May we obtain this gift through the Apostles Peter and Paul, who are remembered by the church of Rome this day that commemorates their martyrdom and therefore their birth to life in God. For the sake of the Gospel they accepted suffering and death, and sharers in the Lord’s resurrection. Their faith, confirmed by martyrdom is the same faith as that of Mary, mother of believers, of the Apostles and of the saints of every age.

Blessed John Paul II

Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul

Today is a perfect day to pray for the Pope and our bishop. It is also a perfect day to pray for Christian unity and to pick up a good book on the Church’s history. Perhaps even pray with Matthew 16.

Grant, we pray, O Lord our God, that we may be sustained by the intercession of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, that, as through them you gave your Church the foundations of her heavenly office, so through them you may help her to eternal salvation.

From a sermon by Saint Augustine, bishop

The martyrs realized what they taught

This day has been made holy by the passion of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul. We are, therefore, not talking about some obscure martyrs. For their voice has gone forth to all the world, and to the ends of the earth their message. These martyrs realized what they taught: they pursued justice, they confessed the truth, they died for it.

Saint Peter, the first of the apostles and a fervent lover of Christ, merited to hear these words: I say to you that you are Peter, for he had said: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Then Christ said: And I say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church. On this rock I will build the faith that you now confess, and on your words: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God, I will build my Church. For you are Peter, and the name Peter comes from petra, the word for “rock,” and not vice versa. “Peter” comes, therefore, from petra, just as “Christian” comes from Christ.

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Apostles’ Fast 2013

Recently on the Sunday of All Saints (26 May 2013) –the Byzantine Church observes a different feast of All Saints than do the Latin Christians– the Eparch (the Greek word for bishop) of the Melkites in the in the USA, Bishop Nicholas James Samra wrote to his people about preparing for the feast of Saints Peter and Paul on June 29. Yes, some Catholics do make preparations for other feasts!

One of the reasons I am drawing our attention to this matter is two-fold: 1.) being Catholic is more than merely following the Latin Church’s disciple — we can learn from others; and 2.) the discipline of those who belong to Christ is more than merely praying, fasting, and almsgiving for selfish reasons, that is, these spiritual activities are to break open our spiritual capacities. Remember what John Paul taught: Christians breathe with two lungs.

The liturgical feast of Ss. Peter and Paul is traditionally preceded by a period of concerted prayer and fasting. These saints –indeed, all of the apostles– are the pillars of our Church. In times past the period of fasting was significant while today it is much modified. The controlling idea is that before an important feast of the Lord, the Mother of God and some saints, the faithful are encouraged to prepare themselves to receive God’s graces in a worthy manner. We prepare by getting rid of sin and living virtuously: corporal and spiritual works of mercy are good things to do.

Bishop Nicholas recalls for us that the Monday after Sunday of All Saints the Byzantine Church begins a time of prayer and fasting leading us to the Feast of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul on 29 June. But now the preparation is modified to 10 days by the Melkite Synod of Bishops. Fittingly, the bishop notes: “We are given this “Apostles Fast” in order to fan into flame the grace of the Holy Spirit within us and to reflect upon the hardships endured by the Apostles as they preached Divine grace and truth to the world.”

Faith needs to be connected with reality. This is the context in which God acts. Several things in our own lives can and ought to be connected with life. Bishop Nicholas indicates that one good way to extrovert our faith by having some sense human ecology on the spiritual level is remember those suffering the effects of the war in Syria. Certainly, we pray for all but special attention to be paid to the Catholics and Orthodox peoples.

Hence, the proposal is to begin our spiritual discipline on June 19. I recommend that you make a confession of sin and receive Holy Communion, pray for the Pope’s intention for June, and name the intentions. Select a charitable organization to to make a donation of funds.

Perhaps we can also use the Apostles’ Fast to pray for those living with cancer. I am thinking of my friend Jesuit Father Edward Oakes who is in need of a miracle due to his recent diagnosis of Type 4 pancreatic and liver cancer.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

To the roots of communion

You can count on a delegation from the Ancient See of Constantinople visiting Rome and the Holy Father on the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul. Most years a small of group of bishops and archimandrites designated by the Ecumenical Patriarch descend on Rome to pray at the Tombs of Peter and Paul, to attend the Mass with the Pope and those receiving the pallium and to exchange ideas with the Pope. Lunch in the Apostolic Palace is regular. In an editorial by L’Osservatore Romano, Pope Benedict talks more openly about the goal of these ecumenical exchanges. Eucharistic sharing is still impossible, but the hope and identifiable goal is that one day –and one hopes it happens in the next 50 years– that we can be in full visible communion. The editorial is below with my emphasis.

The Second Vatican Council, the 50th anniversary of whose opening is to be celebrated next 11 October, has marked “a new and important phase in relations” between Catholics and Orthodox. In recognizing this the Pope expressed the hope that “progress may also be made in the current phase“, while waiting “to arrive soon at the blessed day when we will be able to share in the Eucharistic banquet“.

The traditional meeting with the Delegation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, received in audience on Thursday morning, 28 June, on the eve of the Feast of Sts Peter and Paul, was an opportunity for Benedict XVI to recall the importance of the Council in the development of ecumenical dialogue. It was also an opportunity to remember, in particular, the “passion for the unity of the Church” which inspired the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras and the Pontiffs, John XIII and Paul VI, who “made themselves champions of courageous projects that paved the way to renewed relations between the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Catholic Church”.

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Saints Peter and Paul

These are the ones who, living in the flesh, planted the Church with their blood; they drank the chalice of the Lord and became the friends of God.

O God, who on the Solemnity of the Apostles Peter and Paul give us the noble and joy of this day, grant we pray, that your Church may in all things follow the teaching of those through whom she received the beginnings of right religion.

The antiphon and Collect set the tone by noting our belief: the Church is built on the life, work and sacrifice of two men in collaboration with Christ. It is, as Benedict says, truth is one and symphonic (an idea taken from von Balthasar). How do we live this reality?

Today’s solemnity brings with it a wonderful remembrance of how God uses unsuspecting people to witness to his truth and power. The Pope has “traditionally” bestowed the pallium on the new archbishops as a sign of communion with him in serving the Church and a share in the Cross. North America has several new metropolitan archbishops who went to Rome to pray at the tombs of these Apostles and to receive from the Holy Father this beautiful symbol of office.

Two paragraphs below are taken from the Holy Father’s homily, but the entire text may be read here:

In front of Saint Peter’s Basilica, as is well known,
there are two imposing statues of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, easily
recognizable by their respective attributes: the keys in the hand of Peter and
the sword held by Paul. Likewise, at the main entrance to the Basilica of Saint
Paul Outside the Walls, there are depictions of scenes from the life and the
martyrdom of these two pillars of the Church. Christian tradition has always
considered Saint Peter and Saint Paul to be inseparable: indeed, together, they
represent the whole Gospel of Christ. In Rome, their bond as brothers in the
faith came to acquire a particular significance. Indeed, the Christian
community of this City considered them a kind of counterbalance to the mythical
Romulus and Remus, the two brothers held to be the founders of Rome. A further
parallel comes to mind, still on the theme of brothers: whereas the first
biblical pair of brothers demonstrate the effects of sin, as Cain kills Abel,
yet Peter and Paul, much as they differ from one another in human terms and
notwithstanding the conflicts that arose in their relationship, illustrate a
new way of being brothers, lived according to the Gospel, an authentic way made
possible by the grace of Christ’s Gospel working within them. Only by following
Jesus does one arrive at this new brotherhood: this is the first and
fundamental message that today’s solemnity presents to each one of us, the
importance of which is mirrored in the pursuit of full communion, so earnestly
desired by the ecumenical Patriarch and the Bishop of Rome, as indeed by all
Christians.

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Saints Peter and Paul: “I no longer call you servants, but friends”

The Church celebrates today great solemn feast of Saints Peter and Paul, it is also the 60th anniversary of Pope Benedict’s priestly ordination as well as the day the See of Constantinople sends a delegation to Rome to pray at the tombs of the two great saints and to meet with the Pope. Plus, it is the day in which the metropolitan archbishops who have been appointed in the last calendar year come to Rome to receive the palium (see below). The USA has for archbishops receiving their pallium today: San Antonio, Oklahoma City, Seattle and Los Angelos. All four of these archbishops are under 60. Watch the video clip.

“Non iam dicam servos, sed amicos” – “I no longer call you servants, but friends” (cf. Jn 15:15).

Sixty years on from the day of my priestly ordination, I hear once again deep within me these words of Jesus that were addressed to us new priests at the end of the ordination ceremony by the Archbishop, Cardinal Faulhaber, in his slightly frail yet firm voice. According to the liturgical practice of that time, these words conferred on the newly-ordained priests the authority to forgive sins. “No longer servants, but friends”: at that moment I knew deep down that these words were no mere formality, nor were they simply a quotation from Scripture. I knew that, at that moment, the Lord himself was speaking to me in a very personal way. In baptism and confirmation he had already drawn us close to him, he had already received us into God’s family. But what was taking place now was something greater still. He calls me his friend. He welcomes me into the circle of those he had spoken to in the Upper Room, into the circle of those whom he knows in a very special way, and who thereby come to know him in a very special way. He grants me the almost frightening faculty to do what only he, the Son of God, can legitimately say and do: I forgive you your sins. He wants me – with his authority – to be able to speak, in his name (“I” forgive), words that are not merely words, but an action, changing something at the deepest level of being. I know that behind these words lies his suffering for us and on account of us. I know that forgiveness comes at a price: in his Passion he went deep down into the sordid darkness of our sins. He went down into the night of our guilt, for only thus can it be transformed. And by giving me authority to forgive sins, he lets me look down into the abyss of man, into the immensity of his suffering for us men, and this enables me to sense the immensity of his love. He confides in me: “No longer servants, but friends”. He entrusts to me the words of consecration in the Eucharist. He trusts me to proclaim his word, to explain it aright and to bring it to the people of today. He entrusts himself to me. “You are no longer servants, but friends”: these words bring great inner joy, but at the same time, they are so awe-inspiring that one can feel daunted as the decades go by amid so many experiences of one’s own frailty and his inexhaustible goodness.

“No longer servants, but friends”: this saying contains within itself the entire programme of a priestly life. What is friendship? Idem velle, idem nolle – wanting the same things, rejecting the same things: this was how it was expressed in antiquity. Friendship is a communion of thinking and willing. The Lord says the same thing to us most insistently: “I know my own and my own know me” (Jn 10:14). The Shepherd calls his own by name (cf. Jn 10:3). He knows me by name. I am not just some nameless being in the infinity of the universe. He knows me personally. Do I know him? The friendship that he bestows upon me can only mean that I too try to know him better; that in the Scriptures, in the Sacraments, in prayer, in the communion of saints, in the people who come to me, sent by him, I try to come to know the Lord himself more and more. Friendship is not just about knowing someone, it is above all a communion of the will. It means that my will grows into ever greater conformity with his will. For his will is not something external and foreign to me, something to which I more or less willingly submit or else refuse to submit. No, in friendship, my will grows together with his will, and his will becomes mine: this is how I become truly myself. Over and above communion of thinking and willing, the Lord mentions a third, new element: he gives his life for us (cf. Jn 15:13; 10:15). Lord, help me to come to know you more and more. Help me to be ever more at one with your will. Help me to live my life not for myself, but in union with you to live it for others. Help me to become ever more your friend.

Jesus’ words on friendship should be seen in the context of the discourse on the vine. The Lord associates the image of the vine with a commission to the disciples: “I appointed you that you should go out and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide” (Jn 15:16). The first commission to the disciples, to his friends, is that of setting out – appointed to go out -, stepping outside oneself and towards others. Here we hear an echo of the words of the risen Lord to his disciples at the end of Matthew’s Gospel: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations …” (cf. Mt 28:19f.) The Lord challenges us to move beyond the boundaries of our own world and to bring the Gospel to the world of others, so that it pervades everything and hence the world is opened up for God’s kingdom. We are reminded that even God stepped outside himself, he set his glory aside in order to seek us, in order to bring us his light and his love. We want to follow the God who sets out in this way, we want to move beyond the inertia of self-centredness, so that he himself can enter our world.

After the reference to setting out, Jesus continues: bear fruit, fruit that abides. What fruit does he expect from us? What is this fruit that abides? Now, the fruit of the vine is the grape, and it is from the grape that wine is made. Let us reflect for a moment on this image. For good grapes to ripen, sun is needed, but so too is rain, by day and by night. For noble wine to mature, the grapes need to be pressed, patience is needed while the juice ferments, watchful care is needed to assist the processes of maturation. Noble wine is marked not only by sweetness, but by rich and subtle flavours, the manifold aroma that develops during the processes of maturation and fermentation. Is this not already an image of human life, and especially of our lives as priests? We need both sun and rain, festivity and adversity, times of purification and testing, as well as times of joyful journeying with the Gospel. In hindsight we can thank God for both: for the challenges and the joys, for the dark times and the glad times. In both, we can recognize the constant presence of his love, which unfailingly supports and sustains us.

Yet now we must ask: what sort of fruit does the Lord expect from us? Wine is an image of love: this is the true fruit that abides, the fruit that God wants from us. But let us not forget that in the Old Testament the wine expected from noble grapes is above all an image of justice, which arises from a life lived in accordance with God’s law. And this is not to be dismissed as an Old Testament view that has been surpassed – no, it still remains true. The true content of the Law, its summa, is love for God and for one’s neighbour. But this twofold love is not simply saccharine. It bears within itself the precious cargo of patience, humility, and growth in the conforming of our will to God’s will, to the will of Jesus Christ, our friend. Only in this way, as the whole of our being takes on the qualities of truth and righteousness, is love also true, only thus is it ripe fruit. Its inner demand – faithfulness to Christ and to his Church —seeks a fulfilment that always includes suffering. This is the way that true joy grows. At a deep level, the essence of love, the essence of genuine fruit, coincides with the idea of setting out, going towards: it means self-abandonment, self-giving, it bears within itself the sign of the cross. Gregory the Great once said in this regard: if you are striving for God, take care not to go to him by yourselves alone — a saying that we priests need to keep before us every day (H Ev 1:6:6 PL 76, 1097f.).

Dear friends, perhaps I have dwelt for too long on my inner recollections of sixty years of priestly ministry. Now it is time to turn our attention to the particular task that is to be performed today.

On the feast of Saints Peter and Paul my most cordial greeting goes first of all to the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomaios I and to the Delegation he has sent, to whom I express sincere thanks for their most welcome visit on the happy occasion of this feast of the holy Apostles who are Rome’s patrons. I also greet the Cardinals, my brother bishops, the ambassadors and civil authorities as well as the priests, the confrères of my first Mass, religious and lay faithful. I thank all of you for your presence and your prayers.

The metropolitan archbishops appointed since the feast of Saints Peter and Paul last year are now going to receive the pallium. What does this mean? It may remind us in the first instance of Christ’s easy yoke that is laid upon us (cf. Mt 11:29f.). Christ’s yoke is identical with his friendship. It is a yoke of friendship and therefore “a sweet yoke”, but as such it is also a demanding yoke, one that forms us. It is the yoke of his will, which is a will of truth and love. For us, then, it is first and foremost the yoke of leading others to friendship with Christ and being available to others, caring for them as shepherds. This brings us to a further meaning of the pallium: it is woven from the wool of lambs blessed on the feast of Saint Agnes. Thus it reminds us of the Shepherd who himself became a lamb, out of love for us. It reminds us of Christ, who set out through the mountains and the deserts, in which his lamb, humanity, had strayed. It reminds us of him who took the lamb – humanity – me – upon his shoulders, in order to carry me home. It thus reminds us that we too, as shepherds in his service, are to carry others with us, taking them as it were upon our shoulders and bringing them to Christ. It reminds us that we are called to be shepherds of his flock, which always remains his and does not become ours. Finally the pallium also means quite concretely the communion of the shepherds of the Church with Peter and with his successors – it means that we must be shepherds for unity and in unity, and that it is only in the unity represented by Peter that we truly lead people to Christ.

Sixty years of priestly ministry – dear friends, perhaps I have spoken for too long about this. But I felt prompted at this moment to look back upon the things that have left their mark on the last six decades. I felt prompted to address to you, to all priests and bishops and to the faithful of the Church, a word of hope and encouragement; a word that has matured in long experience of how good the Lord is. Above all, though, it is a time of thanksgiving: thanks to the Lord for the friendship that he has bestowed upon me and that he wishes to bestow upon us all. Thanks to the people who have formed and accompanied me. And all this includes the prayer that the Lord will one day welcome us in his goodness and invite us to contemplate his joy. Amen.

Reciprocal festal gestures for Sts Peter & Paul feast: Pope and an Ecumenical delegation meet

It’s like having your favorite but not too seen aunt Gretchen over the house for coffee to remember what she looks like and to keep up some appearances of genuine love. I shouldn’t make light of such encounters; they are important. It’s tradition and tradition is a very good thing. On the feast of Saints Peter and Paul a delegation is sent to Rome to meet the Pope, to exchange fraternal greetings, to listen to a brief discourse that’s on the mind of the Pope, to hear what the Patriarch of Constantinople has to say, etc. The whole thing is repeated on November 30 when Rome sends a delegation to Constantinople for the feast of Saint Andrew. The trouble is, does anything concrete result from these yearly meetings? What are the implications of this type of high level meeting? Note the Pope’s perspective and his hope. There is an important rhythm of dialogue that happens in coming to understand human and ecclesial complexities which have an end in mind. Two of the Pope’s paragraphs are noted below.

The Orthodox delegation included: His Eminence, Emmanuel, metropolitan of France and Director of the Office of the Orthodox Church to the European Union, Bishop Athenagoras, Bishop of Sinope and auxiliary to the metropolitan of Belgium and Archimandrite Maximus Pothos, vicar general of the metropolitan of Switerland.

Watch the video report from H2O News.

We follow with great attention the work of the Mixed Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church as a whole. From a purely human point of view, one might have the impression that the theological dialogue is having trouble in progressing. In reality, the rhythm of dialogue is linked to the complexity of the themes being discussed, which call for an extraordinary effort of study, of reflection and of reciprocal openness. We are called to continue this course together in charity, invoking light and inspiration from the Holy Spirit, in the certainty that He wishes to lead us to the full accomplishment of the will of Christ: that they may all be one (John 17:21). I am particularly grateful to all the members of the Mixed Commission and in particular to the co-Presidents, His Eminence the Metropolitan of Pergamum Ioannis and His Eminence Cardinal Kurt Koch, for their tireless dedication, their patience and their competence.

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Pallium Mass 2010: a guarantee of freedom, charity and unity, the Pope reminds

Though they suffered on different days, Saints Peter and Paul are known as one, as Saint Augustine reminds.

In first hearing and then reading the papal homily I noticed some very crucial points for us to reflect upon and to seriously consider: the real persecution of the Church today and the impact on Catholic identity exists not exclusively from outside the Church (a theme the pope has stated before now) but from the faithful’s betrayal of the faith, of Truth. When secularism, not to be confused with secularity, infiltrates the Church the true message of the Gospel is obscured and our hearts are darkened.

As usual on today’s solemn feast of Peter and Paul, Pope Benedict bestowed the pallium, the symbol of theological, juridical and fraternal communion between the pope and a bishop. It is also a symbol of the “fullness of charity and unity.” In seeing the pallium we see, as Benedict says, a symbol of “the guarantee of freedom for the Church’s Pastors and the Communities.” Today, 38 archbishops from around the world received the pallium, including three archbishops from the USA and one from Canada.

The Pope’s exhortation and prayer upon giving the pallium:

To the glory of God and the praise of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of the apostles Peter and Paul, and of the Holy Roman Church, for the honor of the Churches, which have been placed in your care, and as a symbol of your authority as metropolitan archbishop: We confer on you the pallium taken from the tomb of Peter to wear within the limits of your ecclesiastical provinces.

And then

May this pallium be a symbol of unity and a sign of your communion with the Apostolic See, a bond of love, and an incentive to courage. On the day of the coming and manifestation of our great God and chief shepherd, Jesus Christ, may you and the flock entrusted to you be clothed with immortality and glory. In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Below is Benedict’s homily for today’s Mass (with my own points of emphasis).

The biblical
texts of this Eucharistic Liturgy of the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, in
their great wealth, highlight a theme that could be summarized thus: God is
close to his faithful servants and frees them from all evil, and frees the
Church from negative powers. It is the theme of the freedom of the Church,
which has a historical aspect and another more deeply spiritual one.

This theme
runs through today’s Liturgy of the Word. The first and second readings speak,
respectively, of St Peter and St Paul, emphasizing precisely the liberating
action of God in them. Especially the text from the Acts of the Apostles
describes in abundant detail the intervention of the Angel of the Lord, who
releases Peter from the chains and leads him outside the prison in Jerusalem,
where he had been locked up, under close supervision, by King Herod (cf. at
12.1 to 11). Paul, however, writing to Timothy when he feels close to the end
of his earthly life, takes stock which shows that the Lord was always near him
and freed him from many dangers and frees him still by introducing him into His
eternal Kingdom (see 2 Tim 4, 6-8.17-18). The theme is reinforced by the
Responsorial Psalm (Ps 33), and also finds a particular development in the
Gospel of Peter’s confession, where Christ promises that the powers of hell
shall not prevail against his Church (cf. Mt 16:18).

Observing closely we note
a certain progression regarding this issue. In the first reading a specific
episode is narrated that shows the Lord’s intervention to free Peter from
prison. In the second Paul, on the basis of his extraordinary apostolic
experience, is convinced that the Lord, who already freed him “from the
mouth of the lion “delivers him” from all evil”, by opening the
doors of Heaven to him. In the Gospel we no longer speak of the individual
Apostles, but the Church as a whole and its safekeeping from the forces of
evil, in the widest and most profound sense. Thus we see that the promise of
Jesus – “the powers of hell shall not prevail” on the Church – yes,
includes the historical experience of persecution suffered by Peter and Paul
and other witnesses of the Gospel, but it goes further, wanting to protect
especially against threats of a spiritual order, as Paul himself writes in his
Letter to the Ephesians: ” For our struggle is not with flesh and blood
but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this
present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens”(Eph 6:12).

Indeed,
if we think of the two millennia of Church history, we can see that – as the
Lord Jesus had announced (cf. Mt 10.16-33) – Christians have never been lacking
in trials, which in some periods and places have assumed the character of real
persecution. These, however, despite the suffering they cause, are not the
greatest danger for the Church. In fact it suffers greatest damage from what
pollutes the Christian faith and life of its members and its communities,
eroding the integrity of the Mystical Body, weakening its ability to prophesy
and witness, tarnishing the beauty of its face. This reality is already
attested in the Pauline Epistle. The First Epistle to the Corinthians, for
example, responds to some problems of divisions, inconsistencies, of infidelity
to the Gospel which seriously threaten the Church. But the Second Letter to
Timothy – of which we heard an excerpt – speaks about the dangers of the
“last days”, identifying them with negative attitudes that belong to
the world and can infect the Christian community: selfishness, vanity, pride,
love of money, etc. (cf. 3.1 to 5). The Apostle’s conclusion is reassuring: men
who do wrong – he writes – “will not make further progress, for their
foolishness will be plain to all” (3.9). There is therefore a guarantee of
freedom promised by God to the Church, it is freedom from the material bonds
that seek to prevent or coerce mission, both through spiritual and moral evils,
which may affect its authenticity and credibility.

The theme of the freedom of
the Church, guaranteed by Christ to Peter, also has a specific relevance to the
rite of the imposition of the pallium, which we renew today for thirty-eight
metropolitan archbishops, to whom I address my most cordial greeting, extending
with it affection to all who have wanted to accompany them on this pilgrimage.
Communion with Peter and his successors, in fact, is the guarantee of freedom
for the Church’s Pastors and the Communities entrusted to them. It is
highlighted on both levels in the aforementioned reflections. Historically,
union with the Apostolic See, ensures the particular Churches and Episcopal
Conferences freedom with respect to local, national or supranational powers,
that can sometimes hinder the mission of the ecclesial Church. Furthermore, and
most essentially, the Petrine ministry is a guarantee of freedom in the sense
of full adherence to truth and authentic tradition, so that the People of God
may be preserved from mistakes concerning faith and morals. Hence the fact that
each year the new Metropolitans come to Rome to receive the pallium from the
hands of the Pope, must be understood in its proper meaning, as a gesture of
communion, and the issue of freedom of the Church gives us a particularly
important key for interpretation. This is evident in the case of churches
marked by persecution, or subject to political interference or other hardships.
But this is no less relevant in the case of communities that suffer the
influence of misleading doctrines or ideological tendencies and practices
contrary to the Gospel. Thus the pallium becomes, in this sense, a pledge of
freedom, similar to the “yoke” of Jesus, that He invites us to take
up, each on their shoulders (Mt 11:29-30). While demanding, the commandment of
Christ is “sweet and light” and instead of weighing down on the bearer,
it lifts him up, thus the bond with the Apostolic See – while challenging –
sustains the Pastor and the portion of the Church entrusted to his care, making
them freer and stronger.

I would like to draw a final point from the Word of
God, in particular from Christ’s promise that the powers of hell shall not
prevail against his Church. These words may also have a significant ecumenical
value, since, as I mentioned earlier, one of the typical effects of the Devil
is division within the Church community. The divisions are in fact symptoms of
the power of sin, which continues to act in members of the Church even after
redemption. But the word of Christ is clear: ” Non praevalebunt – it will
not prevail” (Matt. 16:18). The unity of the Church is rooted in its union
with Christ, and the cause of full Christian unity – always to be sought and
renewed from generation to generation – is well supported by his prayer and his
promise. In the fight against the spirit of evil, God has given us in Jesus the
‘Advocate’, defender, and after his Easter, “another Paraclete” (Jn
14:16), the Holy Spirit, which remains with us always and leads the Church into
the fullness of truth (cf. Jn 14:16; 16:13), which is also the fullness of
charity and unity. With these feelings of confident hope, I am pleased to greet
the delegation of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which, in the beautiful
custom of reciprocal visits, participates in the celebrations of the patron
saints of Rome. Together we thank God for progress in ecumenical relations
between Catholics and Orthodox, and we renew our commitment to generously
reciprocate to God’s grace, which leads us to full communion.

Dear friends, I
cordially greet all of you: Cardinals, Brother Bishops, Ambassadors and civil
authorities, in particular the Mayor of Rome, priests, religious and lay
faithful. Thank you for your presence. May the Saints Peter and Paul help you
to grow in love for the holy Church, the Mystical Body of Christ the Lord and
messenger of unity and peace for all men. May they also help you to offer the
hardships and sufferings endured for fidelity to the Gospel with joy for her
holiness and her mission. May the Virgin Mary, Queen of Apostles and Mother of
the Church, always watch over you and especially over the Ministry of
metropolitan archbishops. With her heavenly help may you always live and act in
that freedom that Christ has won for us. Amen.