Pope Francis asked this Saturday, January 6, for the peace in the Middle East and throughout the world after remembering the 60th anniversary of the historic meeting in Jerusalem between Paul VI and the Orthodox Patriarch Athenagorasthe first step towards overcoming the differences that have existed for centuries between both churches.
“Let us pray for peace in the Middle East, in Palestine, in Israel, in Ukraine, in the whole world,” urged the Pontiff, who referred to the “many victims of the war, so many deaths and so much destruction” when he addressed the Thousands of faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square after the Angelus prayer, this Saturday, for the celebration of the Epiphany.
Previously, Francisco had recalled the historic meeting between the two religious leaders in 1964 and which is considered the first step towards the declaration the following year in which the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church revoked the mutual excommunication that dated from 1054.
“60 years ago, just these days, Pope Saint Paul VI and the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras met in Jerusalembreaking a wall of incommunication that for centuries had kept Catholics and Orthodox apart,” said the Pontiff. “Let us learn from these two greats of the church and move forward on the path of unity of christianspraying together, walking together, working together,” he added.
And “thinking of that historic gesture of fraternity carried out in Jerusalem, let us pray for peace in the Middle East, in Palestine, in Israel, in Ukraine, throughout the world,” he exhorted.