POPE RECEIVES A DELEGATION FROM THE ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE

VATICAN CITY, JUN 28, 1999 (VIS) - The Holy Father today received in audience a delegation from the ecumenical patriarchate of Constantinople, led by His Eminence Chrysostomos, metropolitan of Efesus, which is in Rome for tomorrow's celebration of the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, Apostles.
The Pope indicated that "the search for unity and full communion must be supported by everyone's prayers. May the Lord guide pastors and theologians, that together they may discover the paths to holiness and unity and that they may know how to propose (these paths) to all with the force and conviction that derive from the certainty that 'to believe in Christ means to desire unity; to desire unity means to desire the Church; to desire the Church means to desire the communion of grace which corresponds to the Father's plan from all eternity.'"

"The burning desire of the Catholic Church and the Bishop of Rome is that there arise a great and unanimous prayer of thanksgiving with the firm intention to accomplish together the will of God. Upon a suggestion of His Holiness Bartholomew I, patriarch of Constantinople, I requested that, within the calendar of Roman celebrations for the year 2000, a day of jubilee prayer and fasting be proclaimed, on the eve of the feast of the Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ. ... We must give thanks to God together, with feelings of brotherhood and ecumenical commitment."

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