An Ecumenical Week promoted by the Focolare Movement will be held at CastelGandolfo, Rome from 9 to 13 May, 2017. Some 700 Christians from 70 Churches and Ecclesial Communities are expected to participate.
“Unity among Churches requires heroes, heroes in faith, heroes who face history, heroes who are humble in spirit”. Pope Tawadros II said these words in Alexandria, Egypt in 2015, when celebrating the first Day of Friendship between the Orthodox Coptic Church and the Catholic Church. During his recent visit to Cairo, Pope Francis repeated the same thought when he said, “In the light of God who wishes us to be ‘perfectly one’ it is no longer possible to take refuge behind the pretext of differing interpretations, much less of those centuries of history and traditions that estranged us one from the other”. The Pope also spoke about “an already effective communion that grows daily”, the mysterious and ever present fruits of “a genuine ecumenism of blood”, and the importance of progress in our ecumenical journey because “static ecumenism does not exist”.
Christians inspired by the Focolare spirituality of unity are convinced of this because of the experience lived in these last years.
The 59th Ecumenical Week, to be held at Castelgandolfo, Rome from the 9 to 13 May 2017, blends into the current ecumenial trend, which brings to the foreground gestures, words and statements of Church leaders and also initiatives of Christians in different parts of the world. 700 Christians hailing from 40 countries and belonging to 70 Churches and ecclesial Communities are expected to attend.
Messages from:
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew
Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity
Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, General Secretary, World Council of Churches
Speech by Maria Voce, President of the Focolare Movement
SIF – Focolare Information Service
