Ecclesia in Medio Oriente

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Ecclesia in Medio Oriente ( German : Church in the Middle Orient) is the name of the post-synodal apostolic letter of Pope Benedict XVI. It is dated September 14, 2012 and summarizes the deliberations of the Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the Middle East . The letter also contains the Pope's own opinions and concludes with an apostolic exhortation . This special meeting, which was under the motto "The congregation of believers was one heart and one soul", was held from October 10th to October 24th 2010 in Rome .

Handover and publication

Pope Benedict XVI On September 16, 2012, after the Holy Mass during his visit to Beirut , presented a copy to the Catholic Patriarchs of the Middle East , each Patriarch of the Eastern Churches united with Rome, as well as representatives of the Turkish Roman Catholic Bishops 'Conference , the Iranian Bishops' Conference and some lay representatives.

Table of contents

At the beginning the Holy Father addresses the initial situation of Christians in the Middle East. In the first part of the three-part document, the Pope deals with Christian and ecumenical life, as well as interreligious dialogue . He then outlines two new realities and names them as " secularization and a violent fundamentalism that claims to be rooted in religion ".

In the second part the Pope describes "the community of believers" and takes up the conference motto again. In particular, he addresses the situation of the patriarchs, bishops , priests , deacons and seminarians . Then to turn his attention to the consecrated life , the laity, the family. Finally, he points out the young people and children. The Pope addressed the young people as follows: “Do not be afraid or ashamed of being Christians. Your relationship with Jesus will help you to work generously with your confreres, regardless of their religious affiliation. So the future of your countries will be built on the basis of human dignity, the source of freedom, equality and justice. "

The third and pastoral part , which is headed with the words “We, on the other hand, preach Christ as crucified ... God's power and God's wisdom” ( 1 Corinthians 1: 4–24 EU ), contains the reference to “the word of God, the soul and the source of communion and testimony ”, followed by remarks on the liturgy , prayer and pilgrimages . In his final exhortation, the Pope addresses evangelization and charity and admonishes the mission of the Church . He also mentions the importance of catechesis and Christian education.

Focus

The focal points of his own opinions are dialogue, secularism and women and children. The dialogue is closely related to ecumenism in the Middle East. The Pope therefore appeals to a spiritual ecumenical movement and for openness. On this issue, he particularly defends the “deep bond between Judaism and Christianity”. Benedict XVI. outlines a picture of the real separation of church and state as well as religion and politics. With regard to “secularization and the violent fundamentalism which claims to be rooted in religion”, the Pope outlined the picture of an actual separation of church and state, religion and politics. He acknowledges the difficulties faced by Christians in the Middle East and expresses the wish for Christians to settle down in these regions. On the subject of women's rights he wrote the following: “I want to assure all women that the work of the Catholic Church in accordance with God's plan is to improve the dignity of women and their equality with men. This is supposed to be a response to the many forms of discrimination that they have to suffer just because of being a woman, ”said the Pope. It goes on to say, “Such a practice causes great harm to the life of the community and testimony. It not only hurts women, but first and foremost God the Creator. Given their inherent inclination to love and protect human life, their special contribution to education, health care, human service and apostolic life, I think that women should and should be given more space in public and ecclesiastical life . In this way they can make their special contribution to building a more fraternal society and a church whose beauty will shine all the brighter in the real community of the baptized. "

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Benedict XVI. handed over to Ecclesia in Medio Oriente [1]  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.zenit.org