The world needs the hope of a unified Church, Pope tells ecumenical workers
January 30, 2009
Pope Benedict XVI met on January 30 with members of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches, who were meeting in Rome this week. (The Oriental Orthodox churches, broke with Rome after the Council of Chalcedon, several centuries before the split between Rome and Constantinople that led to the rift with the Eastern Orthodox churches.) The Holy Father praised the participants in this week's 6th dialogue session for their "steadfast commitment to the search for reconciliation and communion in the Body of Christ which is the Church." Referring to the fact that the Oriental Orthodox churches are centered primarily in the Middle East, the Pope said that the problems facing that region remind us that "true seeds of hope are urgently needed in a world wounded by the tragedy of division, conflict and immense human suffering."
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