AUDIENCE: THEOLOGICAL VIRTUES URGE US TO UNITY

VATICAN CITY, NOV 22, 2000 (VIS) - In today's general audience, which was held in St. Peter's Square in the presence of 35,000 people, John Paul II spoke on: "Faith, hope and charity in an ecumenical perspective."

He said that the three theological virtues, faith, hope and charity, in animating Christ's disciples, "urge them to unity," bringing them "to full communion with the Triune God and with their fellows."

The Pope recalled that St. Paul speaks of the unity of faith that "has its source in the Word of God. ... Together, Churches and ecclesial communities find reference in the ancient symbols of faith and in the definitions of the first ecumenical councils. Nonetheless, certain doctrinal differences still have to be overcome in order for the path of the unity of faith to reach its culmination."

St. Paul, continued the Pope, also speaks of a single hope that "is expressed in common commitment, through prayer and the assiduous coherence of life, for the advent of the Kingdom of God. ... The ecumenical movement is oriented towards fundamental and intertwined goals, as the objectives of a single hope: unity of the Church, evangelization of the world, liberation and peace of the human community."

"At the pinnacle of the three theological virtues, there is love," affirmed the Holy Father. The "inexhaustible source of charity is the Eucharist. ... 'Due to disagreements in matters of faith, it is not yet possible to celebrate together the same Eucharistic liturgy. And yet we do have a burning desire to join in celebrating the one Eucharist of the Lord, and this desire itself is already a common prayer of praise, a single supplication.' ... Thus we must put all our hope 'in the prayer of Christ for the Church, in the love of the Father for us, and in the power of the Holy Spirit'."

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