Ecumenism
of the people
to accelerate progress towards the full unity of the Churches.
Chiara Lubich has just concluded her visit to Germany.
(11
november - 3 december 1998)
|
New hopes for ecumenism
have been opened up: the most significant step was made during the ecumenical prayer
marking the beginning of Advent in the Lutheran evangelical church of St Ann, a place
steeped in painful history. It was there that in 1518 the meeting between Luther and the
papal legate, Cardinal Cajetano, took place, a meeting considered decisive regarding the
break with the Church of Rome.
| Bishops, friends of
the Focolare Movement from as far afield as India, Brazil, Syria, Germany, Great Britain
and Italy came together for their annual meeting, the seventeenth of its kind, at
Ottmaring, the Focolare ecumenical town near Augsburg. The church was full to overflowing
with Lutheran evangelicals, Roman Catholics and members of the Free Churches. |
Augsburg, St Ann church
|
It was a visible, living
experience of the dialogue of life, a life sustained by Gospel love, capable of making
many Christians into one people. This one people is founded on one common baptism, the
common heritage of the Scriptures, the Fathers of the Church, the first Councils and the
spirituality of ecumenism.
And it is this ecumenism of the people - which is not in opposition to, but rather
sustains, that at the higher levels - that Chiara Lubich re-launched in Germany. "It
could be leaven," she said, "for full visible communion between the
Churches."
She also spoke about it in Berlin,
in the Lutheran evangelical Memorial church, at the invitation of the 26 Church Ecumenical
Council under the presidency of Cardinal Sterzinsky, Archbishop of that city. Chiara spoke
of the dialogue of the people, of the one people of God, of the experience lived in London
in November 1996, when the presence of the Risen One amongst Catholics, Anglicans and
members of other Churches united by mutual love, made her feel that nothing and no one
could divide us if He was in our midst. "Why not
here and now?" "This evening
- she continued – we arrived here as different Churches. We should leave here as one
Christian people".
During her packed programme in Germany, Chiara held other significant meetings. At Aachen, in Charlemagne’s great
cathedral, she was invited by Bishop Mussinghoff, to recount her experience of
inter-religious dialogue, something highly relevant in today’s Europe, where so many
of our fellow citizens are Muslims and Buddhists.
"We are
working with the Church," she said, "so that religious pluralism is no
longer a cause of division and violence, but becomes a challenge: that of bringing back
together the human family, beyond all the differences."
And in Münster, at the invitation of
Bishop Lettman, Chiara spoke to a cathedral crammed with young people about her vocation
and about the call to each human being to put God in the first
place. |
Münster, Chiara Lubich
and Bishop Reinhard Lettmann
|
"Aim
high," she told the young people "we
have only one life. Let’s spend it well."
(19-02-2001) |
