VATICAN CITY, MAY 31, 2001 (VIS) - The Holy Father this morning welcomed a delegation from Romania's episcopal conference, who presented him with a copy of the Bible of Blaj, which he called "a true monument of faith." He said that, as his trip to Romania brought Catholics and Orthodox closer to unity, "I hope that the reprinting of the Bible of Blaj will be a further step towards full communion of Christ's disciples."
The Pope noted that "from the earliest days of Christianity the Bible was the book which molded quite a number of cultures, and sometimes national alphabets were created to translate it." He recalled that the first Romanian edition of Sacred Scriptures, the 1688 "Bible of Bucharest," went out of print in the second half of the 18th century. A new edition was needed, especially in view of the "notable changes" that had taken place in the Romanian language. Thus, he said, the Bible was edited by "the great erudite monk, Samuil Micu," and printed in Blaj in 1795 by Bishop Ioan Bob.
The Holy Father pointed out that the Bible of Blaj was used by both the Greek-Catholic Church of Transylvania and the Orthodox, "thus serving all Romanians in spreading the faith in Christ." He added that, "given the great literary quality of this work" and "its notable impact on the entire nation, ... I wished to have it reprinted ... in the Vatican as a gift of the Holy See."
Then, referring to his May 1999 pastoral trip to Romania, John Paul II said he well remembers "the cry of the people during Mass in Parcul Izvor: 'Unity, Unity! That was the spiritual longing of a people asking for unity and desirous of working for unity."
He dedicated his closing remarks to the Bible: "The Word of the Lord must first of all be lived. It must penetrate the spaces where man lives and works. For that to happen, the Church is called to preach it with strength and clarity, using traditional means as well as those offered by new technologies."
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