Wednesday, June 09, 2010

In a Church of Martyrs, the Patience of Benedict


In Cyprus, the pope saw up close the drama of the Christians of the East. Ecumenism is flourishing, but where Islam reigns there is no freedom of conscience or religion. The latest victim is Bishop Luigi Padovese, decapitated like Saint John 

by Sandro Magister


ROME, June 9, 2010 – On the first visit ever made by a pope to the island of Cyprus – evangelized in apostolic times, and afterward a terrain of demarcation and conflict between Christianity and Islam – the media emphasized the geopolitical features, which were modest and for the most part not of papal initiative: in particular, those of the working text that will be discussed next October, in Rome, by the patriarchs and bishops of the Churches of the Middle East, a text made public on Sunday, June 6, in Nicosia.

But the most direct way to understand the meaning of this trip in the mind of its author is to listen to the voice of Benedict XVI himself.

Pope Joseph Ratzinger loves to reveal his thinking about each of his trips on two prearranged occasions.

With his replies to the journalists on the flight toward his destination. In the case of Cyprus, on the morning of Friday, June 4:

> Intervista del Santo Padre

With the general audience at the Vatican on the Wednesday following his return from the trip. In the case of Cyprus, today:

> General audience, June 9, 2010

And then, naturally, the texts are supplied by the speeches that the pope gives on the spot. Especially the passages in which his own personal imprint is most evident.

From all of this, it can be gathered that for Benedict XVI, the focal points of the trip to Cyprus were ecumenism and Islam. But not only these.

Posted via email from deaconjohn's posterous

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