In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Peace be with you!

Your Eminence, Your Excellencies,

Dear priests, brothers and sisters,

Peace be with you! I offer you a warm welcome and I am pleased to meet you as you conclude your Plenary Assembly. I greet His Eminence Cardinal Gugerotti, the other Superiors of the Dicastery, the Officials, and all of you, members of the ROACO Agencies.

“God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor 9:7). I realize that, for you, supporting the Eastern Churches is not primarily a task, but a mission carried out in the name of the Gospel, which, as the word itself indicates, is a proclamation of joy, which before all else gladdens the heart of God, who never allows himself to be outdone in generosity. I thank you because, together with all your benefactors, you are sowing seeds of hope in the lands of the Christian East, which today, as never before, are devastated by wars, plundered by special interests, and covered by a cloud of hatred that renders the air unbreathable and toxic. You provide a breath of oxygen to the Eastern Churches, so worn down by the conflicts in course. For many people, poor in means but rich in faith, you are a light that shines amid the dark shadows of hatred. I ask you with all my heart to continue to do everything possible to help these Churches, so precious and so greatly afflicted.

The history of the Eastern Catholic Churches has often been marked by suffering and violence. Sadly, there have also been instances of oppression and misunderstanding within the Catholic community itself, which at times failed to acknowledge and appreciate the value of traditions other than those of the West. Yet today, violent conflict seems to be raging in the Christian East with a diabolical intensity previously unknown. Your annual meeting has itself been affected by the physical absence of those who were to have come from the Holy Land but proved unable to make the journey. Our hearts bleed when we think of Ukraine, the tragic and inhumane situation in Gaza and the Middle East, ravaged by the spread of war. All of us, by virtue of our humanity, are called upon to examine the causes of these conflicts, to identify those that are real and to attempt to resolve them. But also to reject those that are false, the result of emotional manipulation and rhetoric, and to make every effort to bring them to light. People must not die because of fake news.

It is truly distressing to see the principle of “might makes right” prevailing in so many situations today, all for the sake of legitimizing the pursuit of self-interest. It is troubling to see that the force of international law and humanitarian law seems no longer to be binding, replaced by the alleged right to coerce others. This is unworthy of our humanity, shameful for all mankind and for the leaders of nations. After centuries of history, how can anyone believe that acts of war bring about peace and not backfire on those who commit them? How can we think that we are laying the foundations of the future apart from cooperation and a global vision inspired by the common good? How can we continue to betray the desire of the world’s peoples for peace with propaganda about weapons buildup, as if military supremacy will resolve problems instead of fueling even greater hatred and desire for revenge? People are beginning to realize the amount of money that ends up in the pockets of merchants of death; money that could be used to build new hospitals and schools is instead being used to destroy those that already exist!

I ask myself: as Christians, in addition to feeling outraged, speaking out and rolling up our sleeves as peacemakers and promoters of dialogue, what else can we do? I believe that first and foremost we really need to pray. It is up to us to make every tragic news story, every newsreel that we see, a cry of intercession before God. And then to offer help, just as you do and as many others can do through you. 

Yet there is more, and I say this, thinking in particular of the Christian East: there is witness. It is our call to remain faithful to Jesus, without allowing ourselves to end up in the clutches of power. It is our call to imitate Christ, who conquered evil by the love he showed on the cross, and to show a way of reigning quite different from that of Herod and Pilate. Herod, for fear of being deposed, murdered children, who even today continue to be torn apart by bombs; Pilate washed his hands, as we risk doing every day until we arrive at the point of no return. Let us look to Jesus, who calls us to heal the wounds of history solely by the gentle power of his glorious cross, which radiates the strength of forgiveness, the hope of new beginnings, and the resolve to remain honest and transparent in a sea of corruption. Let us follow Christ, who freed hearts from hatred, and show by our example how to break free of the mindset of division and revenge. I would like to thank and spiritually embrace all those Eastern Christians who respond to evil with good. Thank you, dear brothers and sisters, for the witness you give, especially when you remain in your lands as disciples and witnesses of Christ.

Dear friends of ROACO, in your work, you see the immense sufferings caused by war and terrorism – and here I think of the recent terrible attack on the Church of Saint Elias in Damascus – but you also see the seeds of the Gospel taking root in the desert.  You encounter the People of God who persevere by looking up to heaven, praying to God, and loving their neighbors. You experience firsthand the grace and beauty of Eastern traditions, of liturgies that allow God to dwell in time and space, of centuries-old chants imbued with praise, glory, and mystery, which raise an incessant plea for forgiveness for humanity. You encounter men and women who, often nameless, join the great ranks of martyrs and saints of the Christian East. In the dark night of conflict, you are witnesses to the light of the East.

I would like this light of wisdom and salvation to be better known in the Catholic Church, where it is still largely unknown and where, in some places, the faith is in danger of becoming lifeless, also because the hope expressed repeatedly by Saint John Paul II has not yet been realized. Forty years ago, he said: “The Church must learn once again to breathe with both lungs, the Eastern and the Western” (Address to the Sacred College of Cardinals, 28 June 1985). The Christian East, however, can only be preserved if it is loved, and it can only be loved if it is known. Hence, it is necessary to implement the clear bidding of the Magisterium to become familiar with their treasures, for example by organizing basic courses on the Eastern Churches in Seminaries, Theological Faculties, and Catholic Universities (cf. SAINT JOHN PAUL II, Apostolic Letter Orientale Lumen, 24; CONGREGATION FOR CATHOLIC EDUCATION, Circular Letter Eu égard au développement, 9-14). There is also a need for encounter and the sharing of pastoral activity, since Eastern Catholics today are no longer our distant cousins who celebrate unfamiliar rites, but our brothers and sisters who, due to forced migration, are our next-door neighbors. Their sense of the sacred, their deep faith, confirmed by suffering, and their spirituality, redolent of the divine mysteries, can benefit the thirst for God, latent yet at the same present, in the West.

Let us entrust this shared growth in faith to the intercession of the Holy Mother of God and of the Apostles Peter and Paul, who united East and West. I bless you and encourage you to persevere in charity, animated by the hope of Christ. Thank you.