PILGRIMS OF ORIENTAL CHURCHES WELCOMED BY JOHN PAUL II

VATICAN CITY, NOV 20, 2000 (VIS) - This morning in the Paul VI Hall, the Holy Father welcomed pilgrims of the Syro-Malankar and Syro-Malabar Churches from India and elsewhere who are in Rome to celebrate the Jubilee Year 2000. He also greeted the staff and students of the Pontifical Institute of St. John Damascene.

The Pope remarked that "seventy years ago, Metropolitan Archbishop Mar Ivanios, Bishop Mar Theophilos and their companions entered into full communion with the See of Peter, because they were profoundly convinced of the truth of the words found beneath the dome of the Vatican Basilica: ... 'From here the one faith shines forth in the world'." Quoting "Orientale Lumen," he said: "They understood that 'the Church is one, the Church of Christ between East and West'; and they knew that, in entering the communion of the Catholic Church, they 'did not at all intend to deny their fidelity to their own traditions'. He asked them "to invoke God's love on the Christians of the Oriental Churches that ... they may 'discover that they are all walking together towards the one Lord'."

Then, in greetings to the rector, staff and students of the Pontifical Institute of St. John Damascene, John Paul II noted that, during this Jubilee Year, the institute is celebrating the 60th anniversary of its founding by Pope Pius XII.

"You priests who are resident at the institute come from the Syro-Malankara and the Syro-Malabar Churches, and therefore you are all sons of St. Thomas the Apostle, to whose missionary work you owe your Christian faith. Rightly you are proud not only of the rich heritage of your Churches, but also of their apostolic fervor, their pastoral energy and their many vocations."

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