Greetings to the Inter-Christian Symposium

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