POPE PRAISES ACTIVE AND SPIRITUAL ECUMENISM OF ST. BRIDGET

VATICAN CITY, OCT 5, 2002 (VIS) - The Holy Father presided yesterday afternoon at 6 p.m. in the Vatican Basilica at an ecumenical celebration of vespers on the occasion of the 700th anniversary of the birth of St. Bridget of Sweden, co-patroness of Europe. High-level representatives of the Lutheran Church participated in the ceremony. The king and queen of Sweden were represented by their daughter Princess Victoria.

"I would like to emphasize," said the Pope in his homily, "another aspect of the personality of this great missionary of the faith, ... her active and determined efforts for the unity of Christians. During a complex and difficult time in Church and European history ... she did not cease to work for the cohesion and authentic progress of the unity of believers."

After John Paul II recalled the message that he had delivered a few days earlier to the sisters of the Order of St. Bridget in which he defined the saint as a "women of unity who is a witness to ecumenism for us," he indicated that her ecumenism, "spiritual and at the same time active," was "a spiritual heritage to strive for, a common commitment to follow with joyful generosity."

"As unity in the Church is a grace from the Spirit," concluded the Pope, "we must pray constantly for it and then build it up with tireless tenacity, each person offering their own personal contribution."

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