Ecumenical Meeting (4 July 1980)

On 4 July 1980, on the occasion of the Ecumenical Meeting in Porto Alegre, the Holy Father addressed the gathering, speaking of “the elements of union that already exist [among Christians] and this ardent will to arrive at the union that we still await.”

Dear brothers in the Lord.

"Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to live together" (Ps 133:1).

1. This is the sentiment that dominates my spirit as I share with you, representatives of many evangelical communities in Brazil, this spiritual moment of prayer and encounter in the Lord. It is he, in fact, who unites us with his grace and who through his Holy Spirit gives us both the strength to proclaim before the world and "openly Jesus Christ as God and Lord and the only mediator between God and men, for the glory of one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit" ( Unitatis Redintegratio , 20).

If many things still separate us, in terms of faith and Christian action, this, far from leaving us indifferent, or worse still, from closing us in on ourselves, must lead us - and in fact already leads us - to seek more intensely and more faithfully the full union, through conversations and meetings, in sincere and loyal dialogue, with the common witness given in favor of the Lord of all and, above all, through constant prayer. The week of unity, which has become customary in our churches for some years, is among other things a time to share this prayer. The Lord did not say in vain: "Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am in their midst" (Mt 18:20).

2. We know that in many Brazilian Christians there is also this awareness of the elements of union that already exist and this ardent will to arrive at the union that we still await. It is thanks to this that it was possible to establish here, between some Churches and the national conference of Bishops of Brazil, the project for the creation of a national council of Churches, with the aim of maintaining a stable framework for dialogue and collaboration, always bearing in mind an unceasing work in search of unity among Christians.

I congratulate you on this achievement, which can be the prelude to other initiatives in the same direction. Christians can thus all together give renewed witness to their faith in the Lord and to their common hope, while they strive, also together, according to the specific vocation of Christ's disciples, to ensure that the demands of this same faith, the source of charity and justice, are translated into the concrete life, private and public, of your nation.

Therefore, I cannot fail to recall here what has been done in the area of ​​collaboration between Christians, in favor of human rights and their full respect. In saying this, I am referring not only to some important initiatives in terms of presenting and researching the evangelical foundations of these rights, but also to the daily work, in such different places and circumstances, for the defense and promotion of men and women, especially of the poorest and most forgotten, that today's society often tends to abandon to themselves and to marginalize, as if they didn't exist, or as if their existence didn't matter. "The path of the Church is, in fact, man", as I wanted to explain in my first encyclical "Redemptor Hominis" (John Paul II, Redemptor Hominis, 14). In this way, various fundamental orientations of the Puebla document, collected in the chapter on dialogue and in other texts, are also put into practice.

3. I do not wish to end this meeting without recalling that the 450th anniversary of the publication of the so-called "Augsburg Confession" was celebrated a few days ago. I am well aware of the importance of this text for many ecclesial communities, born of the reform, and for me the interest and resonance that this celebration has found in the Catholic Church are a source of sincere satisfaction. May the Lord ensure that this contributes even more to clarifying the way to arrive at the union we spoke of at the beginning.

Dear brothers, our responsibility as Christians is very great before our common Lord, before the concrete men with whom we have to deal, and before ourselves.

We cannot ignore it nor, still less, be unfaithful to it. Together, let us all ask our Lord for the grace to be "faithful and true witnesses" (Rev 1,5; 3,14), so that we can be fully, one day, in perfect union, in the image of the divine Trinity ( cf. Jn 17:22-23), and for his glory.

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