Magyar Egyház, 1984 (63. évfolyam, 1-5. szám)
1984-06-01 / 3. szám
MAGYAR EGYHÁZ 9. oldal POPE JOHM PAUL It VISITS GENEVA (World Council of Churches) Geneva (EPS) — Representatives of the World Couneil of Churches and the Vatican renewed their “commitment to work for the unity of all Christians” after a nearly threehour visit by Pope ,Jphn £aul II to WCC Headquarters,at The Ecumenical CephT» .fcffire (June 12). f The Joint Statement l-EVS 84.06.112) offers “prayer in penitence for our divisions and disobedience. Disagreements- on important questions of doctrine, social issues and pastoral practice,” it continues, “still keep Christians apart... It is our conviction that the unity of all Christians and common wk' ness in the world belong together.” The WCC-Vatican Joint Working Croup, formed in 1965, is to “give priority to clarifying the goal and furthering the ways towards unity, to common witness, to social collaboration, and to ecumenical formation at all levels.” John Paul came to the heavily guarded Center 15 years and two days after the first such Papal visit, for an hour by Pope VI in 1969 (EPS 84.06.104). The WCC stop came on the first of his six days in Switzerland. After introductions, the visit began with 90 minutes of worship. During an act of penitence, which Held led in English and German, the congregation asked pardon for “our division and for our failure to overcome them.” Lessons from the Old and New Testaments were read by Talbot and Eastern Orthodox Metropolitan Emilianos. The Pope’s visit is a “clear indication of our united determination to proclaim and live the Gospel in word and deed and also to seek to follow the prayer of our Lord that we may he One that the world may believe that he whose name we bear was sent for its salvation. But,” he continued, “this determination must be expressed in our active involvement together, beyond formal collaboration....” Following Worship, the Pope and other Vatican representatives, senior WCC staff members, and representatives of other Church organizations in the building (Lutheran World Federation, World Alliance of Reformed Churches, Conference of European Churches) met in the large conference hall next to the Chapel for an hour of private “dialogue and discussion.” .............. (Oikoumene) THE POPE ON CHRISTIAN UNITY Pope John Paul II, arriving June 13 in Geneva, spoke to leaders of the World Council of Churches. He stressed that Catholics and Protestants shared a common concern for freedom and justice. The Pope said that Christian Churches face “the forces of destruction which assail the human family, erode its spiritual foundation and lead it to the brink of the abyss.” The Pope spoke in French stating that “from the beginning of my ministry as Bishop of Rome, I have insisted that the engagement of the Catholic Church in the ecumenical movement is irreversible.” But he also said that there could be no compromise on the issue of papal authority. “That is our Catholic conviction and fidelity to Christ forbids us to give it up.” A "CONCORDAT" AND AN "AGREEMENT" IN ITALY Last February Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi signed a new Concordat with the Roman Catholic Church and an official Agreement with *tbe Waldensian and Methodist Churches. (The Waldensian Church belongs to the family of Reformed Chunhei?.) The last Concordat with the Roman Catholic Church had been signed in 1928 by Mussolini, who in the same year imposed on the non-Catholic churches a very repressive law on allowed cults. The fact that the Italian government signed on the one hand a Concordat and on the other an Agreement, suggests that even today in Italy, one could say that all churches are equal, but one of them is more equal than the others. The Concordat leads to a very heavy financial contribution of the State in favor of the Roman Catholic Church, whereas through the Agreement the Protestant Churches refuse any financial support from the state: even military and hospital chaplaincies and religious education in schools (if and when quested by the pupils) have to be financed by the church. This is based on the conviction of the Italian Protestants that the State-Church relation has to he one of freedom, independence and non-interference. (RPS) EASTERN ORTHODOX "NO" TO COMMUNION WITH HETERODOX The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Dimitrios (Eastern Orthodox) has reiterated a 1967 letter by his predecessor, Patriarch Athenagoras, rejecting the possibility of Eastern Orthodox sharing the eueharist (the Lord’s Supper) with non-Orthodox. This message was issued after monks on Mount Athos (Greece) complained that patriarchate bishops distribute “the holy sacraments to heterodox.” CZECH COMMUNIST CRITICISM OF THE POPE The Swiss church news agency Kipa reports from Prague that the Communist Party newspaper Triburui criticized Pope John Paul as the biggest reactionary of the century in connection with his anti-Communist and anti-Soviet policies. The article, less than a month after Vatican envoy Luigi Poggi ended a four-day visit in Prague, showed, according to the Reuter news agency, “differences in the Czechoslovak leadership on how to handle the renewed dialogue with the Vatican, diplomats said.” Church-State relations in Czechoslovakia are “described by Western diplomats as the most strained in Eastern Europe,” according to Reuter. (EPS)
