From August 28 to 30 of this year, the XIII Inter-Christian Symposium is taking place near the crypt of the Great Hall at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan. The theme of this meeting is The life of Christians and Civil Power: Historical questions and current perspectives in the East and the West. It was organized by the Franciscan Institute for Spirituality at the Pontifical Antonianum University and by the Department of Theology of the Faculty of Orthodox Theology at the Aristoteles University in Salonica, with the collaboration of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart.
Message
of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
sent to His Eminence, Kurt Koch
President of the Pontifical Council
for the Promotion of Christian Unity
It is with particular joy that I learned of the
Inter-Christian Symposium’s initiative organized on a biannual basis by the
Franciscan Institute for Spirituality of the Pontifical Antonianum University and the Department of Theology of the Faculty
of Orthodox Theology at the Aristoteles University
in Salonica, with the aim of deepening the conscience of the theological and
spiritual traditions of the East and West and of cultivating fraternal and amiable
study relationships between the members of these two academic institutions.
I would therefore like to extend my cordial greetings to
the organizers, the speakers and all those who are participating in the XIII
edition of this praiseworthy initiative, which is being held this year in
Milan, with the collaboration of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart,
focused on the theme: The Life of
Christians and the civil power: Historical questions and current perspectives
in the East and the West. This
proposition fits well within the framework of the many initiatives being
undertaken to mark the XVII centenary of the promulgation of the Edict of
Constantinople, an initiative which has particular significance for Milan, and
which was marked earlier this year by the visit of the Ecumenical Patriarch
Bartholomew I to the Ambrosian Church and to that city.
The historic decision, through which religious freedom
for Christians was decreed, opened new paths for the diffusion of the gospel
and contributed in significantly to the birth of European civilization. The memory of that event offers an
opportunity for the present Symposium to reflect on the evolution of the
methods through which the Christian world relates with civil society and with
the authorities which preside over it.
These arrangements have evolved over a long history in very different
contexts, as consequences to significant diversification between the East and
the West. At the same time, they have
maintained some fundamental communal traits, such as the conviction that civil
power is limited by the law of God, the right to respect for the autonomy of
conscience, and awareness that ecclesial authority and civil powers are called
to collaborate for the integral good of the human community.
Hoping that the work of the Symposium will bear abundant
fruit for the advancement of historical research and mutual understanding
between the different traditions, I assure you of my remembrance in prayer and cordially
impart my Apostolic Blessing to all those who have contributed to the
organization of the conference as well as on all those who participate.
From the Vatican, 19 August 2013
Francis
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