Also at this Mass was a delegation from the Orthodox Church of Constantinople. The Pope asked them, and us, to not look at each other from the view of what divides us, but rather look at each other from what we share. We are divided, all in all, on the question of the authority of the Pope, the Petrine ministry. Beyond that, we share succession from the apostles, the faith from Scriptures and the great Councils and the valid priesthood and sacraments.
I wonder what roads Pope Benedict XVI will make in the next few years on the unity between our two dimensions of the Christian way.
Even if we still do not agree on the question of the interpretation and of the capacity of the Petrine ministry, we are however together in the apostolic succession, we are profoundly united with the others by the episcopal ministry and by the sacrament of the priesthood and we confess together the faith of the apostles as it is given in Scripture and as it is interpreted in the great Councils.
In this hour of the world, full of skepticism and doubts but rich in the desire for God, we acknowledge again our common mission to witness together Christ the Lord and, on the basis of that unity that is already given to us, to help the world believe. And we entreat the Lord with all our heart to guide us to full unity so that the splendor of the truth, which alone can create unity, will again become visible in the world.
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