To Representatives of the Orthodox Church in Brazil (3 July 1980)

On Thursday, 3 July 1980, the Holy Father met with representatives of the Orthodox Church in Brazil, to whom he spoke of the collaboration of Catholics and Orthodox as recommended by the Second Vatican Council.

Dear brothers in Christ,

1. In the name of the Lord Jesus, and through him giving thanks to God the Father (cf. Col 3:17), I come to this meeting with you, worthy representatives of the Orthodox Church in Brazil. I need not tell you how much I rejoice at this opportunity in the context of my apostolic pilgrimage through Brazil. I am delighted to personally observe that, in this country that has welcomed you, your relations and your collaboration with the hierarchy, with the clergy and with the Catholic people grow all the more as the two churches, Catholic and Orthodox, look at each other again in the light of Christ and ever more profoundly rediscover themselves as sister churches. They also discover the needs that this fact brings with it in the pastoral action of both.

2. Returning from my fraternal visit to the Ecumenical Patriarchate, I had occasion to emphasize that what has very appropriately been called a dialogue of charity was to become a necessary component of the pastoral programs of each of our two churches, the Catholic and the Orthodox.

The deepening of this fraternal attitude, the intensification of reciprocal relationships and of collaboration between the churches, create the vital environment, if I may express myself thus, in which theological dialogue can be born and must develop until reaching results that the people Christian will be prepared to welcome.

No one is exempt from this effort. The Second Vatican Council firmly declared this as regards Catholics (cf. Unitatis Redintegratio , 4). The same Council devoted special attention to the collaboration of Catholics with their Orthodox brethren, who, leaving the East, came to settle in countries far from their homeland (cf. ibid., 18 ) . This is precisely what is happening here in Brazil, and therefore Catholics and Orthodox are called to actively contribute to the success of this new phase of our journey towards full communion.

3. Also in the Brazilian situation, with an urgency and breadth which require the closest collaboration between the Churches, it is necessary that they place themselves together at the service of man.

I am sure that this collaboration will not be missing. May the light and strength from above always assist us in this enterprise, make us both fervent in prayer, assiduous in knowing the other church, zealous in preserving our own religious identity, and respectful of the of the other. Without this, either there is no dialogue, or the dialogue will soon prove to be empty and insubstantial, if not falsified.

Here I renew the expression of my admiration for the great and remarkable traditions of the Orthodox Church: the quality of its doctors, the majestic beauty of its worship, the value of its saints, the fervor of monastic life, as the Council has already said well Vatican II. (cf. Ibid , 14-18)

I renew here the expression of my gratitude for today's meeting, and I assure you of my profound fraternal charity, my respectful esteem and my union in prayer.

Copyright © Dicastery for Communication - Vatican Publishing House