There is no unity without forgiveness

Vatican City, 7 December 2015 (VIS) – Following today's Angelus prayer the Pope greeted the pilgrims present in the Square and affirmed that he is following closely the work of the Climate Conference in Paris. “What kind of world do we want to leave to those who come after us, to children who are now growing up?”, he asked. For the good of our common home, for all of us and for the future generations, every effort should be directed toward mitigating the impact of climate change and, at the same time, curbing poverty and enabling human dignity to flourish”. He urged those present to pray that the Holy Spirit “enlighten all those who are called to make such important decisions and give them the courage always to let themselves be guided in their decisions by the criterion of the greater good of the human family”.

He recalled that 7 December marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Common Declaration of Paul VI and the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras, in which the memory of the mutual sentences of excommunication exchanged between the Church of Rome and Constantinople in 1054 was eliminated. “There is no authentic path toward unity without a plea for forgiveness, to God and between us, for the sin of division” he said, asking for prayers for the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomaios and the other leaders of the Orthodox Churches so that “relations between Catholics and Orthodox always be inspired by fraternal love”.

He also mentioned that yesterday in Chimbote, Peru, the Conventual Franciscans Michael Tomaszek and Zbigniew Strzalkowski and the priest Alessandro Dordi were beatified. “May the fidelity of these martyrs in following Jesus give all of us, especially Christians persecuted in different parts of the world, the strength to bear witness to the Gospel with courage”.