To the Council of the Federation of Evangelical Churches in Switzerland (14 June 1984)

On Thursday, 14 June 1984, in Kehrsatz (Bern) the Holy Father addressed the Council of the Federation of Evangelical Churches in Switzerland. In his speech, the Pope reflected on the two pivotal figures, Huldrych Zwingli and Jean Calvin. “The legacy of the thought and ethical choices proper to each of these two men continues to be present, with force and dynamism, in various parts of Christendom.” Despite the divisions the helped foment, “no one can deny that elements of the theology and spirituality of each of them maintain deep links between us.”

Mr. President,
My Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

1. We have just prayed together. It was a great grace for me to share with you. When we say the Our Father together, we are gathered in the name of the Lord, because it is the Spirit of God who allows us to say “Father”, he puts in us the sentiments of the Son (cf. Phil . 2:5), and it is therefore the Spirit of God also who allows us to say “brothers” and “sisters”. I am happy to have been able to come to you. I thank you for your invitation. I have not forgotten, Mr. President, what you wrote to me so nobly three years ago, when, for reasons you know, I had to give up my trip to you. I appreciate the elevation of your sentiments, your frankness, your faith and your trust. You have just shown them again and I thank you with all my heart.

I am here with you because of the Word of God and the witness of Jesus. May the grace of the Lord help me, in spiritual union with all the Christians of this country, to correspond to this intention! The fundamental unity given to us by the Spirit of God in baptism, by its very nature, tends towards “a Church of God, one and visible, truly universal, sent into the world so that it may be converted to the Gospel and thus be saved for the glory of God”. We acknowledge with gratitude all that the Lord - in the power of the Spirit - through fraternal dialogues and ecumenical collaboration, has accomplished throughout the world and especially in your country, to make us more capable of bearing common witness to the reconciliation given to us in Jesus Christ.

2. This year, we have fresh in our minds the memory of the zeal which animated two prominent religious figures in Swiss history: one, Huldrych Zwingli, whose fifth centenary you are celebrating with various events in honour of his person and his work; the other, Jean Calvin, who was born 475 years ago.

We find the historical impact of their witness not only in the sphere of theology and ecclesial structure, but also in the cultural, social and political spheres. The legacy of the thought and ethical choices proper to each of these two men continues to be present, with force and dynamism, in various parts of Christendom. On the one hand, we cannot forget that the work of their reform remains a permanent challenge between us and makes our ecclesial divisions ever current; but on the other hand, no one can deny that elements of the theology and spirituality of each of them maintain deep links between us. The fact that we judge differently the complex events of the history of that time, as well as the differences that persist in central questions of our faith, must not divide us forever. Above all, the memory of past events must not limit the freedom of our present efforts to repair the damage caused by those events. The purification of memory is a crucial element of ecumenical progress. It involves the frank recognition of mutual wrongs and errors committed in the way of reacting to one another, while all intended to make the Church more faithful to the will of her Lord. Perhaps the day will come, and I hope it will be soon, when Catholics and Reformed Christians in Switzerland will be able to write together the history of this troubled and complex era with the objectivity that a profound fraternal charity gives. Such an achievement will make it possible to entrust the past without reluctance to the mercy of God and to be, in all freedom, stretched out towards the future to make it more in conformity with his will (Cf. Phil . 3:13), who wants his own to have but one heart and one soul (Cf. Acts 4:24) to unite in the praise and proclamation of the glory of his grace (Cf. Eph . 1:6).

3. It is in fact a question for each Christian to operate this profound and continual conversion of heart and for each community to try constantly to renew itself in a deepened fidelity. These are, I am convinced, the necessary foundations of all personal and community ecumenical commitment (Cf. Unitatis Redintegratio , 6). But all our human efforts, sometimes too human, must be constantly aroused, oriented, drawn, purified in an intercession by which we manifest a lived conviction that it is God alone who makes growth (Cf. 1 Cor. 3, 6). You said it very rightly: by praying for one another, we make ourselves available to the Spirit who wants to reconcile us, a change takes place in us with respect to others, and we find ourselves in the same awareness of an identical dependence recognized and loved with respect to our one Lord.

4. It is obvious that when we come together at this level, all the dynamism coming from our common baptism makes us ardently desire to commune together in the body and blood of the Lord, without which we cannot have life in us (Cf. Io . 6, 53). This desire that you have just expressed, Mr. Pastor, is also, profoundly, mine. This is the whole meaning of the dialogue in which we are engaged both at the national level between your Federation and the Catholic Church in Switzerland and at the international level between the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Secretariat for Unity and within the “Faith and Order” Commission of the World Council of Churches. Indeed, the Eucharistic celebration is for the Church a profession of faith in action, and a complete agreement in faith is the presupposition of a common Eucharistic celebration that is truly faithful and true. We cannot give a misleading sign. All our dialogue tends towards such a common celebration. It would be useless to remove the pain of separation if we do not remedy the cause of this pain, which is precisely the separation itself. May the Lord grant that the day may come when our common desire will be fulfilled!

5. In preparation for this day, it is important that, from now on, we strive to do together all that is possible to do together. It is by doing the truth that we come towards the light (Cf. Ibid . 3, 21). The urgency of this common and effective witness of all Christians is great.

Let us not waste time, because today, in this country where, with other Christians, you bear witness to the gospel of salvation, there are men and women for whom God is nothing, for whom Jesus is nothing, even though He is the greatest treasure that God has given to the world. This underlines the urgency of a new evangelization. And moreover, the face of this world saved by Jesus is today horribly disfigured in many parts of the globe by war, famine, injustice and countless attacks on the dignity of the human person. We would be badly called Christians if, in the face of so many actions that oppose the divine plan to reconcile all in Christ and to bring men together in love, we did not commit ourselves together and ever more, with men and women of good will, so that each and every one today is respected in his or her dignity and can enjoy peace and freedom. What Christian would dare to claim that he has already done all he could to reach this goal? The needs are immense and “the love of Christ constrains us” ( 2 Cor. 5:14). This should not discourage us, but should keep each of us humble, vigilant and confident in the grace of Christ. Our work is only a cooperation with the work of the Lord, with the Love poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Cf. Rom . 5:5). Allow me to thank you in the name of the Lord and, with you, to thank God who has called us on the difficult paths of ecumenism. He who began this work among us will know how to bring it to completion (Cf. Phil . 1:6). The desire to reach this goal should not make us overlook the magnificent gifts that he has given us and continues to give us on this path. We must give him thanks for them. May he help us to forgive all that we have to forgive! May he help us to remain faithful to his Word and may he give us the grace of full and visible unity among us!

© Copyright 1984 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

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