Vatican City, 26 May 2014 (VIS) –
After signing the Joint Declaration, the Holy Father and the
Patriarch Bartholomew went to the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre to
take part in an ecumenical celebration. The Pope entered the Square
by the Muristan arch, while the Patriarch entered by the gate of St.
Helena. The celebration continued with the participation of the
Ordinaries of the Holy Land, the Syrian archbishop, the Ethiopian
archbishop, the Anglican bishop, the Lutheran bishop, and others. It
was also attended by the general consuls of the five countries who
guarantee the “Statu quo” of the Basilica (France, Belgium,
Spain, Italy and Greece), and the other consuls of the “Corpus
separatum” of Jerusalem (Switzerland, the United States, Turkey,
and the United Kingdom).
The Holy Sepulchre is, according to
tradition, the place where the burial, crucifixion and resurrection
of Jesus Christ took place. After the repression of the Jewish revolt
in 135, Jerusalem underwent a radical change: the Jews, Samaritans
and Judeo-Christians were expelled and their return was prohibited.
Hadrian, with the intention of eliminating every trace of the
religion that had provoked two violent revolts, destroyed all places
of worship, and the Holy Sepulchre suffered the same fate: it was
razed to the ground, its cavities filled with earth, and a temple to
the goddess Venus-Ishtar was built over it. During the first
ecumenical Council of Nicaea, the bishop of Jerusalem, Macarius,
invited the emperor Constantine to restore to light the Holy
Sepulchre, which, beneath the rubble, was perfectly preserved. The
Basilica of the Resurrection to be built there at the behest of the
Empress Helena, mother of Constantine, and went on to have a
tumultuous history throughout the centuries. The stone that sealed
the tomb was broken during the Persian invasion of 614 and it went on
to suffer further damages until the decision of the Crusaders in 1099
to enclose all the monuments to the death and Resurrection of Christ
in a single building, which remained almost unaltered until the end
of the nineteenth century. Further damages resulted from the
earthquake in 1927 and the first Arab-Israel war in 1948.
The Basilica continues to be regulated
according to the “Statu quo”, and it is the property of three
communities: the Latins (represented by the Friars Minor), the Greek
Orthodox and the Armenian Orthodox; the Coptic Orthodox, Syrian
Orthodox and the Ethiopian Orthodox may officiate in the Basilica. At
the entrance, in the atrium, there is the Stone of the Anointing,
which according to tradition indicates the place where Jesus, deposed
from the Cross, was anointed.
Pope Francis and the Patriarch
Bartholomew were received by the three superiors of the communities
of the “Statu Quo” (Greek Orthodox, Franciscan and Armenian
Apostolic). The Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos III
and the Custodian of Jerusalem, Fr. Pierbattista Pizzaballa, O.F.M.
Cap., and the Armenian Apostolic Patriarch, His Beatitude Archbishop
Nourhan Manougian, venerated the Stone of the Anointing, followed by
the Pope and the Ecumenical Patriarch.
After the proclamation of the Gospel
and the words of Patriarch Bartholomew, the Holy Father gave an
address in which he commented that the Basilica, “which all
Christians regard with the deepest veneration”, his pilgrimage in
the company of my "beloved brother in Christ, His Holiness
Bartholomew, now reaches its culmination. We are making this
pilgrimage in the footsteps of our venerable predecessors, Pope Paul
VI and Patriarch Athenagoras, who, with courage and docility to the
Holy Spirit, made possible, fifty years ago, in this holy city of
Jerusalem, an historic meeting between the Bishop of Rome and the
Patriarch of Constantinople. I cordially greet all of you who are
present. In a special way I express my heartfelt gratitude to those
who have made this moment possible: His Beatitude Theophilos, who has
welcomed us so graciously, His Beatitude Nourhan Manougian and Father
Pierbattista Pizzaballa”.
“It is an extraordinary grace to be
gathered here in prayer”, he continued. “The empty tomb, that new
garden grave where Joseph of Arimathea had reverently placed Jesus’
body, is the place from which the proclamation of the resurrection
begins. … This proclamation, confirmed by the testimony of those to
whom the risen Lord appeared, is the heart of the Christian message,
faithfully passed down from generation to generation. … This is the
basis of the faith which unites us, whereby together we profess that
Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of the Father and our sole Lord,
'suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried;
he descended into hell; on the third day he rose again from the
dead'. Each of us, everyone baptised in Christ, has spiritually risen
from this tomb, for in baptism all of us truly became members of the
body of the One who is the Firstborn of all creation; we were buried
together with him, so as to be raised up with him and to walk in
newness of life”.
“Let us receive the special grace of
this moment. We pause in reverent silence before this empty tomb in
order to rediscover the grandeur of our Christian vocation: we are
men and women of resurrection, and not of death. From this place we
learn how to live our lives, the trials of our Churches and of the
whole world, in the light of Easter morning. … Let us not allow
ourselves to be robbed of the basis of our hope! Let us not deprive
the world of the joyful message of the resurrection! And let us not
be deaf to the powerful summons to unity which rings out from this
very place, in the words of the One who, risen from the dead, calls
all of us 'my brothers'”.
“Clearly we cannot deny the divisions
which continue to exist among us, the disciples of Jesus”, he
observed. “This sacred place makes us even more painfully aware of
how tragic they are. And yet, fifty years after the embrace of those
two venerable Fathers, we realise with gratitude and renewed
amazement how it was possible, at the prompting of the Holy Spirit,
to take truly significant steps towards unity. We know that much
distance still needs to be travelled before we attain that fullness
of communion which can also be expressed by sharing the same
Eucharistic table, something we ardently desire; yet our
disagreements must not frighten us and paralyse our progress. We need
to believe that, just as the stone before the tomb was cast aside, so
too every obstacle to our full communion will also be removed. This
will be a grace of resurrection, of which we can have a foretaste
even today. Every time we ask forgiveness of one another for our sins
against other Christians and every time we find the courage to grant
and receive such forgiveness, we experience the resurrection! Every
time we put behind us our long-standing prejudices and find the
courage to build new fraternal relationships, we confess that Christ
is truly risen! Every time we reflect on the future of the Church in
the light of her vocation to unity, the dawn of Easter breaks forth!
Here I reiterate the hope already expressed by my predecessors for a
continued dialogue with all our brothers and sisters in Christ, aimed
at finding a means of exercising the specific ministry of the Bishop
of Rome which, in fidelity to his mission, can be open to a new
situation and can be, in the present context, a service of love and
of communion acknowledged by all”.
“Standing as pilgrims in these holy
places, we also remember in our prayers the entire Middle East, so
frequently and lamentably marked by acts of violence and conflict.
Nor do we forget in our prayers the many other men and women who in
various parts of our world are suffering from war, poverty and
hunger, as well as the many Christians who are persecuted for their
faith in the risen Lord. When Christians of different confessions
suffer together, side by side, and assist one another with fraternal
charity, there is born an ecumenism of suffering, an ecumenism of
blood, which proves particularly powerful not only for those
situations in which it occurs, but also, by virtue of the communion
of the saints, for the whole Church as well. Those who kill, who
persecute Christians out of hatred, do not ask if they are Orthodox
or Catholics: they are Christians. The blood of Christians is the
same”.
Finally, addressing Bartholomew and all
those present, he said, “Your Holiness, beloved brother, dear
brothers and sisters all, let us put aside the misgivings we have
inherited from the past and open our hearts to the working of the
Holy Spirit, the Spirit of love, in order to hasten together towards
that blessed day when our full communion will be restored. In making
this journey, we feel ourselves sustained by the prayer which Jesus
himself, in this city, on the eve of his passion, death and
resurrection, offered to the Father for his disciples. It is a prayer
which we ourselves in humility never tire to make our own: 'that they
may all be one… that the world may believe'. And when disunity
makes us pessimistic, distrusting, fearful, let us all commend
ourselves to the protection of the Holy Mother of God. When there is
spiritual turmoil in the Christian soul, it is only by seeking refuge
under her mantle that we can find peace. May the Holy Mother of God
help us on this journey”.
After this discourse, the Pope and the
Patriarch embraced as a sign of peace and prayed the Lord's Prayer
together in Italian, while the others present did so in their own
languages. They then entered the Sepulchre to venerate the empty
tomb, after which they ascended to the Basilica together to bless the
people. They then continued to Mount Calvary, accompanied by the
Greek and Armenian Patriarchs and the Custodian of the Holy Land, to
venerate the place of Jesus' death and crucifixion.
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