THE PATH TOWARDS UNITY IS THE CHURCH'S PATH

VATICAN CITY, DEC 2, 2000 (VIS) - Bishops who are friends of the Focolare Movement and who are holding their annual meeting in Rome, were welcomed today by the Holy Father in what has become a traditional appointment. They have been reflecting on the theme "The cry of the abandoned Christ: light on the path to full communion among Churches."

The Pope thanked the bishops and their communities "for the tenacious work you undertake in favor of unity among all believers in Christ. ... I am happy that you have been able to reflect and pray together for this great objective, for which the Catholic Church has repeatedly affirmed her irrevocable commitment. The ecumenical path, in fact, is the path of the Church."

"You have meditated," he said, referring to their theme, " on the anguish experienced by Christ in Gethsemane when He felt alone and abandoned in fully carrying out the mission that the Father had entrusted to Him. ... The ecumenical path thus finds its decisive model in the extreme offering of the Son of God Who, for love of His brothers, bore every division, conquering in Himself the sin of the disunity of His followers."

John Paul II observed that "we, witnesses of His redeeming sacrifice, are called to become ever more profoundly His instruments and ministers of unity and sanctification. Above all with prayer, because reconciliation and the recomposition of the unity of the divisions in the Church are a gift from on high."

In closing, the Pope affirmed that "unity is also a patient and far-sighted victory of faith and charity. We must allow the Lord, who is the doctor of souls, to heal us inside from every egoism."

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