FAITH IN THE EUCHARIST, COLLEGIALITY, PROMOTING CHARITY

VATICAN CITY, NOV 16, 2004 (VIS) - This morning the Pope received the members of the 10th ordinary council of the Secretariat General of the Synod of Bishops which is preparing the synod that will take place in October 2005 on the theme, "The Eucharist: source and summit of the life and mission of the Church."

  "The next synod," he said, "will be an auspicious occasion so that in the Church faith in the mystery of the Eucharist is confirmed, so that collegial and hierarchical communion is renewed and so that fraternal charity is promoted."

  Referring to the encyclical "Ecclesia de Eucharistia," published in 2003, and the Apostolic Letter "Mane nobiscum Domine," published this October, the Holy Father underscored that both documents are entrusted to the Church so that "the doctrine and Eucharistic praxis universally find souls ready for communion with the Lord and with their brothers and sisters in charity."

  John Paul II indicated that the pastors of the Church must "be authentic teachers of communion so that the Lord's flock grows in unity as one body, so that the spaces dedicated to pastoral charity increase, and so that collegiality and hierarchal communion flourish through the fruits of the Holy Spirit."

  "May the Church, renewed in the discovery of the gift and mystery of the Eucharist," he concluded, "extend this inexhaustible wealth of life to those near and far through the urgent work of the new evangelization."
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