Tag: Ecumenism

A Stitch in Time Saves Nine

“Please make a pot of coffee, but very, very strong,” I asked my assistant a few weeks ago. Patriarch Raphael I Bidawid, head of the Chaldean Catholic Church, was coming to visit.
The patriarch is from Baghdad. In Iraq and throughout the Middle East, a visitor is always welcomed and offered hospitality. Usually this is expressed by a small cup of “Arabic” or “Turkish” coffee — a coffee that is aromatic, strong, and thick.
A cup of coffee or tea, a biscuit or a sweet, even a cigarette to smoke, are indispensable accompaniments to any Middle Eastern visit. Another is the elaborately courteous and seemingly casual and random conversation, which often veils yet indirectly pursues a well planned agenda.
A visit is an important part of life in the Middle East — in fact, in most parts of the world. It is a gesture of respect, an expression of concern for the interests of the one visited, and, above all else, an important medium of communication.
Over the years, besides visiting our offices and programs in the Middle East, I make a lot of other visits — to Catholic and Orthodox patriarchs and bishops, to other Christian leaders, to muftis and rabbis, even to civil authorities.
First visits frequently are somewhat stilted and guarded. The unspoken questions are, “What is the reason? Why is he here?” Gradually, as visits are repeated, motives become clearer and apprehensions grow less.
Visit by visit trust begins to be stitched together and the fabric of a relationship begins to grow.

For example, at Christmas time, according to a well orchestrated tradition in Beirut, Damascus, and Jerusalem, each patriarch visits the other — for visits need to be reciprocated.
The visits are occasioned by the holy days, but they form part of the great knitting together of the churches, which is the work of the Holy Spirit in our day.
While in the United States, Patriarch Bidawid visited Mar Dinkha IV, Catholicos-Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, to explore ways and means toward union with the Church of the East.
Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch Maximos V Hakim and Greek Orthodox Patriarch Ignatius IV Hazim, through their holy synods, are committed to seeking the union of the Church of Antioch.
Through their many mutual visits, the patriarchs and other Christian leaders of Jerusalem have enough mutual confidence to meet and plan together regularly after centuries of separation.
Even the fragile fabric of peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and throughout the Middle East, depends on whether visits take place and, if so, the mutual respect they proclaim and the trust they build.
The angel visited Mary and Joseph. Mary visited Elizabeth. Jesus visited Levi and Zacchaeus. Nicodemus visited Jesus. The Holy Spirit often has visited you and me.
Praise be to the one God who knits us all together!


(Published in
Catholic Near East, 23:1, January 1997)

Two’s Company, Three’s a Crowd

On 6 January 1996, the Holy See’s Congregation for the Eastern Churches issued an Instruction for Applying the Liturgical Prescriptions of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches.
The attractively printed, 96 page document seems, at first blush, to be a somewhat technical publication of interest only to liturgical and canonical specialists.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. The prescriptions of this beautifully crafted document are revolutionary in their implications, They are another bold step forward by the Holy See in its quest for Church unity.
The first millennium of the Church’s life is a history of its spread throughout the ancient world and beyond, in Europe and in Asia. It also is a history of divisions, rooted in politics, rivalries, cultural differences, and misunderstandings.
During the second millennium, the Church spread throughout most of the world. The dark side of this period was the splintering of the Western Church and the attacks on Christianity in modern times. The bright side was the quest for the unity of the Church and new vitality in Church life everywhere.
During recent centuries many groups of Eastern Christians, separated from the Church of Rome, sought to establish full communion with the Holy See, even at the price of breaking away from their mother churches. Most of today’s Eastern Catholic Churches were born this way.
Over the years, these Eastern Catholic Churches began to adopt many of the rites, customs, traditions, and vesture of the Latin or Roman Church. In other words they, became “Latinized.”

From the Roman Catholic point of view, these churches seem thoroughly eastern. But from the Orthodox point of view, they are too absorbed and influenced by the West. In a way, they have become a third kind of church, a hybrid of East and West.
The major focus of this new Vatican document is to encourage the Eastern Catholic Churches to divest themselves of all western adaptations and to restore the ancient traditions of the Eastern Churches:

. . . the Eastern uniqueness . . . risks being compromised or even eliminated in the contact with the Latin Church, her institutions, her doctrinal elaboration, her liturgical practices, and her internal organization . . . In every effort of liturgical renewal . . . the practice of the Orthodox brethren should be taken into account, knowing it, respecting it and distancing from it as little as possible . . .

The Instruction lays the groundwork for a striking plan for the unity of the Church. The churches that broke with Orthodoxy for the sake of union with Rome must become instruments of union.
Firm in their communion with Rome, they must return to the fullness of their ancient traditions so that Eastern Churches not yet in full communion with Rome will see in them a genuine, uncompromised model of unity in diversity.
May the third be the millennium of unity!


(Published in
Catholic Near East, 22:4, July 1996)

That All May Be One

Why is an organization named “Catholic Near East Welfare Association” concerned with Orthodox churches, not to mention Muslims and Jews?
Therein lies a tale . . .
CNEWA’s birth date was 11 March 1926, when Pope Pius XI directed that “all [American] Catholic organizations working for the common cause of aiding Russia and the Near East, as well as all other organizations proposing to labor for causes comprised within the scope of the Sacred Congregation for the Oriental Church and the Pontifical Commission for Russia, shall be united in one body and remain united under a common direction.
“In particular, the two organizations already working in this field, namely, the «Catholic Near East Welfare Association» and the «Catholic Union» should be merged.”
The prototype Catholic Near East Welfare Association had been chartered 18 months previously to “solicit and procure the voluntary contribution of funds for the relief of suffering people, particularly children, in Greece, Turkey, Armenia and other countries known as the Near East.”
Only three months after that, an American branch of the Catholic Union was incorporated. The Catholic Union had been founded in Europe to promote the reunion of the Ukrainian, Bulgarian, and Romanian Orthodox churches with Rome.
The new papal agency, although using the name, “Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA)”, was charged by the Holy Father to continue laboring for the purposes of both the organizations that had been merged into it.

In 1930, the mandate of CNEWA was extended by the Pope to include support for the pastoral mission and institutions of the Catholic churches of the East.
As the years passed and the Holy See’s institutions and their purposes evolved, so did CNEWA’s:
— When two special pontifical councils were established in Rome after Vatican II, one for the promotion of Christian unity and the other for interreligious dialogue, CNEWA began to collaborate with them.
— CNEWA’s original purpose of working for the reunion of some Orthodox churches with the Holy See was extended eventually to include all.
— As the model for seeking Christian unity gradually shifted from the return to Rome to that of establishing full communion among sister churches, CNEWA began increasingly to offer its services to all branches of the Church, both Catholic and Orthodox.
— As the Holy See began to initiate dialogues with Muslims and Jews, CNEWA continued its policy of providing humanitarian assistance to all people without regard to creed and began to promote fraternal relations with non-Christians, especially Jews and Muslims, by collaboration in works of human development.
That’s why our operating principle in this dialogue of charity is: Always act as if the Church is one, unless forced to encounter a difference.


(Published in
Catholic Near East, 22:2, March 1996)

Detours on the Road to Unity

Once upon a time, there used to be just one holy catholic and apostolic Church. In the course of the centuries, because of misunderstandings of language and customs, because of personal rivalries and jealousies, because of political pressures and violence, and because of God knows how many other factors, the one Church became divided.
Truly, no Christian is happy about the divisions.
Over the years there have been a variety of attempts to resolve them, especially as regards the divisions between the churches of the East and the West.
During the last four centuries, some Christian communities decided to unite with Rome, even at the price of breaking communion with their mother churches.
In those days the choice seemed to have been either “us” or “them”. Ecclesiology, or understanding of church, in the West tended to portray the divisions of the Church like the separation of branches from the trunk of the tree or like the separation of stray sheep from the body of the flock.
The Eastern Christian communities that opted for full union with the Church of the West and placed themselves under her authority, are now the Eastern Catholic churches, or “uniate” churches, as they are sometimes called.
Since these churches were organized, ecclesiology has developed and the understanding of the nature of the Church has evolved in both West and East.
After Vatican Council II, the image of church as a family or as a communion of disciples became more prominent.

Also, unity came to be seen, not so much as a “yes” or “no” situation, but as a matter of degrees and as a growing process.
Now, we speak less of who is right and who is wrong and more of how we can we all live in peace and communion, one Christian family, together.
The challenge of East-West Christian unity has become three-way: among the Church of the West (the Roman Catholics), the churches of the East (the Orthodox), and the churches of the East in union with Rome.
How does each church live and grow without offending or impeding the other? There’s need for a delicate balance.
On 23 June 1993 the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, meeting in Balamand, Lebanon, issued a striking statement addressing this task: “Uniatism, Method of Union of the Past, and the Present Search for Full Communion.”
Honestly analyzing the past in the light of our shared faith, it calls for a rejection of “uniatism” as an outdated method for the attainment of unity, for the recognition of the legitimacy and rights of the existing Eastern Catholic churches, and for the exclusion of all proselytism and all desire for expansion by Catholics at the expense of the Orthodox Church.
Of course, we’ve known the right method to attain Christian unity all along: “Love one another as I have loved you.”


(Published in
Catholic Near East, 21:2, March 1995)

Tokens of Love

It wasn’t a very elegant entrance into the holy city of Etchmiadzin. We had all piled into a jeep that morning in the Armenian mountain town of Ashotzk. The papal nuncio was driving, Cardinal Silvestrini was in the front seat, and Msgr. Gugerotti and I bounced along in the back.
We thought we had an 11 A.M. appointment with Catholicos Vasken I, Supreme Patriarch of All the Armenians, and we were running a little late.
Well, we did have an appointment, but not as we thought.
Cardinal Silvestrini, Prefect of the Congregation for Eastern Churches, had requested an audience with the Catholicos for our small Vatican delegation. The Cardinal’s mission—to present him with a special gift from Pope John Paul II, relics of the holy Apostles Bartholomew and Thaddeus.
As we pulled into the precincts of the Catholicosate and headed towards the office of the Catholicos, the great bells of the cathedral began to peal in celebration. We hastily got out of our jeep and arranged our robes for what clearly was a major liturgical reception.
A procession of Armenian Apostolic clerics met our quickly improvised entrance procession bearing the reliquaries of the two apostles. Reverently accepting the relics from our hands — Msgr. Gugerotti and I bore them — they led us into the cathedral.
The Catholicos awaited us at his throne with all the bishops of Armenia grouped around him. Bishops, priests. and deacons were solemnly vested. A magnificent choir chanted while the relics were placed on the altar amid candles and flowers.

We were shown to places of honor to either side of the Catholicos. His firm words belying his frail appearance, Vasken I welcomed us bearers of these holy relics with great emotion.
Just as the Church of Rome is founded on Saints Peter and Paul, he said, so the Church of Armenia traces its faith to Saints Bartholomew and Thaddeus. Just as the Apostles were brothers in Christ, so must be the churches founded by them.
Truly we were received as brothers in Christ, notwithstanding all the ancient misunderstandings, competitions, and separations between the two churches.
The movement for the reunion of the Churches is called ecumenical. It springs from the special impulse of the Spirit of Christ who prayed that all may be one.
Usually its practitioners are canonists and theologians who, often in elaborately orchestrated dialogues and meetings, carefully analyze points of difference and propose formulas for mutual agreement.
The warmth of the experience of Etchmiadzin made me think yet once again how much ecumenism really is more a matter of the heart than of the mind, a matter of friendship and love.
There is a time for dialogue, but there is a time for embracing too. Don’t just tell me you’re my friend — show me! Let your actions speak loud and clear. Come to me, talk to me, spend time with me — give me tokens of your love.


(Published in
Catholic Near East, 20:4, July 1994)

Georgia on My Mind

In response to an invitation extended by Mr. Eduard Shevardnadze, Georgia’s head of state, Cardinal Achille Silvestrini, Prefect of the Congregation for the Eastern Churches, led a small Vatican delegation to Georgia.
Other members included Msgr. Claudio Gugerotti, Official of the Congregation for the Eastern Churches; Father Angelo Brusco, O.S.Cam., Superior General of the Order of St. Camillus; Mr. Francesco Carloni of Caritas Italiana; and Msgr. Robert Stern, Secretary General of Catholic Near East Welfare Association.
The overall purposes of the trip were to call upon civil and ecclesiastical authorities and to make pastoral visits to representative small Catholic communities. A special purpose was to explore the feasibility of building a multipurpose health clinic in Tbilisi to be staffed by the Camillian Fathers and placed at the service of the people of Georgia in the name of the pope.

General Description

Georgia and its neighboring republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan, separated from Russia by the Caucasus Mountains, historically have been a frontier between Europe and Asia. A part of the Russian and Soviet empires since the 18th century, Georgia declared its independence again in 1990.
Covering an area of 26,900 square miles, Georgia has a population of 5,400,000 according to its 1989 census. Its capital, Tbilisi, has 1,300,000 inhabitants.
Descendants of ancient tribes, ethnic Georgians are unrelated to the Russians and other Slavs and make up 70 percent of the population. Over 80 other nationalities live in Georgia, including Abkhazians, Armenians, Ossetians, and Russians.

History

Known to the ancient Greeks as Colchis, the mythical land to which Jason voyaged to find the Golden Fleece, Georgia was conquered by Pompey in 66 B.C. and brought into the Roman sphere. It remained firmly allied with Rome for almost three centuries.
Georgia’s independence from Rome dates from the Roman recognition of Mirian III as the King of Kartli-Iberia (eastern Georgia) in 298 A.D. He became a Christian and made Christianity the official religion of his kingdom in 337. By the 6th century, Christianity was the state religion in Colchis (western Georgia) as well.
In 645, the Arabs captured Tbilisi and installed an emir there to rule in the name of the caliph. Arab rule weakened with the expansion of the Byzantine empire. By 1027 the Georgian kingdoms were a united and independent power in the Caucasus.
The Seljuk Turks from Central Asia defeated the Byzantines and controlled the area for 50 years. They were finally defeated in 1122 by the Georgian king, David the Builder. This victory ushered in Georgia’s Golden Age.
In the 13th century the Mongols invaded Georgia more than once and dominated it for over 100 years. After briefly repulsing Mongol rule, the Georgian kingdom was again invaded and conquered in 1386.
After repeated invasions and conquests by Mongols, Ottoman Turks, and Persians, the Georgian king sought Russian protection in 1783. Georgia was annexed by Russia in 1800.
In 1918, Georgia declared itself an independent republic, but in 1921 the Red Army invaded and it was once again annexed by Russia.

Political Conflict

After a declaration of Georgian sovereignty on 9 March 1990, elections were held in October. Mr. Zviad Gamsakhurdia, a historian, became the chairman of parliament. However he was accused of establishing a dictatorship and overthrown by a military coup in January 1992. Mr. Eduard Shevardnadze returned to Georgia from Moscow a few months later and was elected chairman of parliament and head of state on 11 October 1992.
In September 1993 bitter fighting broke out between supporters of Gamsakhurdia and the new government that continued until last November.

Ethnic Conflict: South Ossetia

South Ossetia is a small mountainous region near the Russian border, north of Tbilisi. Two-thirds of its 100,000 people are ethnic Ossetians, traditionally allied with Russia. Civil conflict started there in 1989. In 1990 the South Ossetians, then living in an autonomous region within Georgia, declared their land to be a sovereign republic. In December 1991 they proclaimed their independence.
After intense fighting, a cease-fire was signed in June 1992 and is still in force, although there is still no final resolution to the conflict.

Ethnic Conflict: Abkhazia

Abkhazia, a region on the Black Sea in northwestern Georgia, was originally populated by a distinct ethnic group, the Abkhaz, most of whom embraced Islam in the 16th century.
After the Bolsheviks took over Georgia in 1921, Abkhazia became a sovereign socialist republic. In 1930, it was reduced to an autonomous republic within Georgia, and Georgian immigration was encouraged.
The Abkhaz people and leadership felt their land was becoming Georgian and losing its identity. By August 1992, when Abkhazian separatists declared an independent republic, precipitating civil war, the Abkhaz numbered only 18 percent of the population; 46 percent were Georgian.
Presently there is an uneasy truce. Russia has asked the UN to approve its troops as peacekeepers in the area. As a result of the fighting, an estimated 150,000 Georgians and other non-Abkhazian peoples, approximately 30 percent of the total population of Abkhazia, fled for their lives. Almost 50,000 live as refugees in Tbilisi.

Social and Economic Conditions

Approximately 250,000 people, 4.6 percent of the total population of Georgia, are displaced due to the civil conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Most live in great poverty, having lost their lands and possessions when they fled for their lives.
With the demise of the Soviet Union, the economy of Georgia, as that of other republics of the former U.S.S.R., has collapsed. Previously a privileged Soviet republic, Georgia is now almost destitute.
Living conditions have deteriorated drastically. Uncontrolled inflation has made the scrip used as currency almost worthless.
The average monthly wage is about 75 cents. Meanwhile, the cost of food for a small family costs approximately $25 a month. Many people are reduced to selling or bartering their possessions for food.
Before the collapse of the centralized Soviet economy, Georgia had processing plants for mineral water and tea leaves, breweries, and silk and textile factories. Now most of the Georgian factories and plants are not in operation.
Reportedly, corruption is rampant and organized crime controls a black-market and much of the popular economy.

The Church of Georgia

The great missionary of Georgia is St. Nino of Cappadocia. Originally the church in eastern Georgia used the liturgy of St. James and was dependent on the Antiochene patriarchate, until it became independent in 467.
The church in western Georgia used the Byzantine liturgy. With the unification of the two kingdoms and the establishment of one catholicosate in 1008, the Byzantine liturgy was followed by all.
After Georgia was annexed by Russia, the Georgian catholicosate was abolished. From 1811 until 1917, when the Georgian church again declared itself autocephalous, it was administered by a special exarch of the Russian Orthodox Church.
During the Soviet period, both the Russian and the Georgian Orthodox churches suffered. Of the 2,455 churches open in Georgia until 1917, only 80 were open until just a few years ago.
Traditionally almost all Georgians are Orthodox, although, after 80 years of communism, the actual level of religious formation and practice is very low. In 1988 a new Theological Academy, or seminary, was allowed to be opened in Tbilisi. Under the leadership of the present Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, Ilia II, a renewal of the church has begun.

Catholics in Georgia

From the Middle Ages, Latin (Roman) Catholic missionaries proselytized Orthodox Christians in Georgia periodically. In 1329 a Latin bishopric was established in Tbilisi, which later lapsed. By the time Georgia was incorporated into the Russian empire, it had about 50,000 Latin Catholics in addition to scattered communities of Armenian Catholics.
During most of the Soviet period, the remnants of these Catholic communities were totally isolated and had no clergy to minister to them. Presently, there are two Latin Catholic priests caring for the one Catholic church open in Tbilisi, two Latin Catholic priests providing pastoral care to a few Latin Catholic villages, and two Armenian Catholic priests caring for the few Armenian Catholic villages in Georgia.
Three years ago the Holy See named an ordinary for Armenian Catholics in Eastern Europe, who resides in Armenia.
Last year the Holy See appointed an apostolic nuncio to Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia who resides in Tbilisi and also serves as apostolic administrator for Latin Catholics in the Caucasus.

Parish Encounters

In the course of our visit, Cardinal Silvestrini celebrated two public Masses in Tbilisi, one in Sts. Peter and Paul Church and the other in the convent chapel of the Missionaries of Charity. Enthusiastic crowds jammed both.
When the delegation visited the Armenian Catholic village of Shvilisi, it was greeted in the traditional way with two young people in traditional dress bearing bread and salt. Dozens of children lined the entrance to the village with flowers. An outdoor assembly of hundreds of persons organized by the two Armenian Catholic sisters working in the village awaited the group in the village center.
Afterward, Archbishop Nerses der Nersessian celebrated an Armenian liturgy in the church at which the cardinal presided. The local Georgian Orthodox bishop attended the liturgy and a festive meal that followed.
In the small Latin Catholic village of Arali, Cardinal Silvestrini celebrated a Mass on an improvised altar outside the village church. There were too many people to fit inside. Rapt, weathered faces of old folk who had endured long years without sacraments were fixed on the cardinal. The occasional showers did not dampen their enthusiasm, their heartfelt prayers or their glad songs.


(Published in
Catholic Near East, 20:4, July 1994)

Distinction Without a Difference

Last month the new director of our Jerusalem office, Fr. Denis Madden, spent a week in New York for his initial orientation. Naturally we overwhelmed him with papers and reports and his every day was crammed with meetings and conversations.
The most important aspect of his orientation hardly could be put into writing. It had to do with intangibles, the attitudes and style which characterize our work — our Catholic Near East Welfare Association “oral tradition.”
Discussing the ecumenical dimension of what we do, I conveyed to him one of our prime directives: “Always act as if the church is one, unless you are forced to encounter a difference.”
This means being as respectful, attentive, and solicitous to the needs of the Orthodox and Protestant communities and their spiritual leaders as we are to the various Catholic communities.
So often in ecumenical dialogues, as they are usually called, theologians fasten upon the points of doctrinal difference and seek to bridge the gaps and hostilities.
In our work we’re more fortunate. In our “dialogue of charity,” to use a beautiful expression of Pope John Paul II, we fasten upon the commonality of need and the universal appeal and power of love.
When it comes to helping people in need, their creed or their lack of it is not a determining factor.
Our mission is to be of service not just to Roman Catholics, but to all Catholics — not just to Catholics, but to all Christians — not just to Christians, but to all believers — not just to believers, but to all members of the one human family.

The tendency of modern societies is to accentuate differences — differences of nationality, ethnic group, race, religion, political affiliation — differences of social class, economic achievement, education, and breeding — even differences of sexual orientation, life-style, and values.
If all I do is accentuate what makes me different from others, after a while I paint myself into a lonely corner. After all, if we press it far enough, each one of us is ultimately unique and different from everyone else in the whole world. That’s the way God made us!
To know who you are — and to have confidence in yourself — you have to know and appreciate all that is distinctive about yourself.
To be in touch with anybody else, to be joined or to be in solidarity with others in any way, you have to learn to bridge the differences.
That’s what forgiveness, reconciliation, and peacemaking are all about, whether between individual persons or among groups or nations.
In fact, the special name for this power God gives us, which enables us both to appreciate all that distinguishes us and to reach out and join together with others, is love.
Maybe the prime directive for the successful orientation of every new member of the human family should be this: “Always act as if we all are one, unless you are forced to encounter a difference.”


(Published in
Catholic Near East, 20:1, January 1994)

Vatican II Reminiscences

Just before Christmas I was warmly welcomed to his residence in Damascus by His Holiness Moran Mar Ignatius Zakka I, the Syrian Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and all the East.
During the visit, the patriarch reminisced about his experiences, when a young priest, as the official observer of the Syrian Orthodox Church at the Second Vatican Council.
After attending two sessions of the council, he was named a bishop and assumed new duties. Pope Paul VI wrote him a personal note of congratulations, a gesture which touched Patriarch Zakka deeply.
I told the patriarch how I, too, as a young priest, had attended two sessions of Vatican II. While in Rome pursuing doctoral studies in Canon Law, I served on the council staff and was privileged to attend its daily sessions.
During the first session of the council in 1962, three draft documents dealing with Christian unity were placed before the Council Fathers: The Commission for the Eastern Churches had prepared a text on unity; the Theological Commission, on Protestants; and the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity, on general ecumenical principles.
The bishops voted to have the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity draft one decree on ecumenism, incorporating all these ideas.
I remember when the preliminary vote was taken on the new draft in 1963. The council decided to accept the first three chapters about relations with the Orthodox and Protestant Churches as a basis for discussion.

During the general debate in the 1964 session, more than 1,000 amendments were proposed by the Council Fathers. Item by item and chapter by chapter the revised draft decree was debated and approved.
On November 19th, the day before the final vote, we were given an unusual document to distribute to the bishops. Usually draft materials were nicely printed and bound; this was a mimeographed paper proposing nineteen changes in the text “on higher authority.”
There was consternation among the bishops: Why these last-minute changes? Who had made them? What was to be done?
It turned out that Pope Paul VI, burning the midnight oil, had personally revised the final text. The upset of the Council Fathers was calmed, and the next day the Decree on Ecumenism was overwhelmingly approved.
With a stroke of the Holy Father’s pen, the old vocabulary of “schismatic” and “heretic” was wiped away. Now Catholics began to speak of “separated brethren,” fellow members of the one Church of Christ.
Let us “go forward without obstructing the way of divine providence and without prejudging the future inspiration of the Holy Spirit,” the pope and his fellow bishops prayed.
Amen!


(Published in
Catholic Near East, 16:2, April 1990)