VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE
YEAR XXII - # 018
DATE 26-01-2015

Summary:
- Solemnity of the conversion of St. Paul: "We are all at the service of the
one Gospel"
- Angelus: God too thirsts for us
- New appeal for a cease to the violence in Ukraine
- The most effective antidote to violence is accepting difference as richness
- Francis: "Unity is achieved by walking together"
- Ten years after "Dignitas connubii": in search of swift solutions
- Audiences
- Other Pontifical Acts

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 Solemnity of the conversion of St. Paul: "We are all at the service of the
one Gospel"
 Vatican City, 25 January 2015 (VIS) - Yesterday afternoon the Pope presided
at the second Vespers on the solemnity of the conversion of St. Paul, bringing
to a close the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, the theme of which this
year was "Give me to drink" (John, 4.7).
 Representatives from other Churches and communities in Rome were present, and
the celebration concluded with an apostolic blessing. In his homily, the full
text of which is published below, Pope Francis emphasised that Jesus' thirst -
which is described in the Gospel passage of the Samaritan woman - goes well
beyond physical thirst. "It is also the thirst for an encounter, the wish to
establish a dialogue with the woman, thus offering her the possibility of a
path of inner conversion".
 "On his way from Judea to Galilee, Jesus passes through Samaria", began the
Pope. "He has no problem dealing with Samaritans, who were considered by the
Jews to be heretics, schismatics, separate. His attitude tells us that
encounter with those who are different from ourselves can make us grow.
 "Weary from his journey, Jesus does not hesitate to ask the Samaritan woman
for something to drink. His thirst, however, is much more than physical: it is
also a thirst for encounter, a desire to enter into dialogue with that woman
and to invite her to make a journey of interior conversion. Jesus is patient,
respectful of the person before him, and gradually reveals himself to her. His
example encourages us to seek a serene encounter with others. To understand
one another, and to grow in charity and truth, we need to pause, to accept and
listen to one another. In this way, we already begin to experience unity.
Unity grows along the way; it never stands still. Unity happens when we walk
together.
 "The woman of Sychar asks Jesus about the place where God is truly
worshipped. Jesus does not side with the mountain or the temple, but goes to
the heart of the matter, breaking down every wall of division. He speaks
instead of the meaning of true worship: 'God is spirit, and those who worship
him must worship in spirit and truth'. So many past controversies between
Christians can be overcome when we put aside all polemical or apologetic
approaches, and seek instead to grasp more fully what unites us, namely, our
call to share in the mystery of the Father's love revealed to us by the Son
through the Holy Spirit. Christian unity, we are convinced, will not be the
fruit of subtle theoretical discussions in which each party tries to convince
the other of the soundness of their opinions. When the Son of Man comes, he
will find us still discussing! We need to realise that, to plumb the depths of
the mystery of God, we need one another, we need to encounter one another and
to challenge one another under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, who harmonises
diversities and overcomes conflicts, reconciles differences".
 Gradually, continued the Pope, "the Samaritan woman comes to realise that the
one who has asked her for a drink is able to slake her own thirst. Jesus in
effect tells her that he is the source of living water which can satisfy her
thirst for ever. Our human existence is marked by boundless aspirations: we
seek truth, we thirst for love, justice and freedom. These desires can only be
partially satisfied, for from the depths of our being we are prompted to seek
'something more', something capable of fully quenching our thirst. The
response to these aspirations is given by God in Jesus Christ, in his paschal
mystery. From the pierced side of Jesus there flowed blood and water. He is
the brimming fount of the water of the Holy Spirit, 'the love of God poured
into our hearts on the day of our baptism. By the working of the Holy Spirit,
we have become one in Christ, sons in the Son, true worshippers of the Father.
This mystery of love is the deepest ground of the unity which binds all
Christians and is much greater than their historical divisions. To the extent
that we humbly advance towards the Lord, then, we also draw nearer to one
another".
 Her encounter with Jesus "made the Samaritan women a missionary. Having
received a greater and more important gift than mere water from a well, she
leaves her jar behind and runs back to tell her townspeople that she has met
the Christ. Her encounter with Jesus restored meaning and joy to her life, and
she felt the desire to share this with others. Today there are so many men and
women around us who are weary and thirsting, and who ask us Christians to give
them something to drink. It is a request which we cannot evade. In the call to
be evangelisers, all the Churches and Ecclesial Communities discover a
privileged setting for closer cooperation. For this to be effective, we need
to stop being self-enclosed, exclusive, and bent on imposing a uniformity
based on merely human calculations. Our shared commitment to proclaiming the
Gospel enables us to overcome proselytism and competition in all their forms.
All of us are at the service of the one Gospel".
 "In this moment of prayer for unity, I would also like to remember our
martyrs, the martyrs of today. They are witnesses to Jesus Christ, and they
are persecuted and killed because they are Christians. Those who persecute
them make no distinction between the religious communities to which they
belong. They are Christians and for that they are persecuted. This, brothers
and sisters, is the ecumenism of blood", emphasised Francis.
 He continued, "Mindful of this testimony given by our martyrs today, and with
this joyful certainty, I offer a cordial and fraternal greeting to His
Eminence Metropolitan Gennadios, the representative of the Ecumenical
Patriarch, His Grace David Moxon, the personal representative in Rome of the
Archbishop of Canterbury, and "all the representatives of the various Churches
and Ecclesial Communions gathered here to celebrate the Feast of the
Conversion of Saint Paul". He added, "I am also pleased to greet the members
of the Joint Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church
and the Orthodox Churches, and I offer them my best wishes for the
fruitfulness of the plenary session to be held in these coming days. I also
greet the students from the Ecumenical Institute at Bossey, and the young
recipients of study grants from by the Committee for Cultural Collaboration
with the Orthodox Churches, centred in the Pontifical Council for Promoting
Christian Unity".
 Also present, he said, "are men and women religious from various Churches and
Ecclesial Communities who have taken part in an ecumenical meeting organised
by the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and for Societies of
Apostolic Life, in conjunction with the Pontifical Council for Promoting
Christian Unity, to mark the Year for Consecrated Life. Religious life, as
prophetic sign of the world to come, is called to offer in our time a witness
to that communion in Christ which transcends all differences and finds
expression in concrete gestures of acceptance and dialogue. The pursuit of
Christian unity cannot be the sole prerogative of individuals or religious
communities particularly concerned with this issue. A shared knowledge of the
different traditions of consecrated life, and a fruitful exchange of
experiences, can prove beneficial for the vitality of all forms of religious
life in the different Churches and Ecclesial Communities".
 "Dear brothers and sisters", he concluded, "today all of us who thirst for
peace and fraternity trustingly implore from our heavenly Father, through
Jesus Christ the one priest and mediator, and through the intercession of the
Blessed Virgin Mary, the Apostle Paul and all the saints, the gift of full
communion between all Christians, so that 'the sacred mystery of the unity of
the Church' may shine forth as the sign and instrument of reconciliation for
the whole world".

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 Angelus: God too thirsts for us
 Vatican City, 25 January 2015 (VIS) - At midday today the Pope appeared at
the window of his study to pray the Sunday Angelus with the faithful gathered
in St. Peter's Square and commented on today's Gospel reading, which relates
the beginning of Jesus' preaching immediately after the arrest of St. John the
Baptist.
 "Jesus' announcement is similar to that of John, with the significant
difference that Jesus does not indicate that another is to come: Jesus Himself
is the fulfilment of the promise; He is the 'good news' to believe in, to
receive and to communicate to men and women of all time, so that they too
entrust their existence to Him. Jesus Christ Himself is the living Word and He
is active in history: he who listens to and follows Him will enter the Kingdom
of God".
 "Jesus is the fulfilment of the divine promise because it is He who gives
mankind the Holy Spirit, the 'living water' that quenches the thirst of our
restless heart for life, love, freedom, peace: our thirst for God", explained
Francis. Jesus' words to the Samaritan woman, 'Give me to drink', were the
theme of this year's annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which
concludes this afternoon with the second Vespers in the Roman Basilica of St.
Paul Outside-the-Walls "to pray fervently to the Lord, so that He might
strengthen our commitment to the full unity of all Christians". He added, "it
is an ugly thing, that Christians are divided. But Jesus wants us to be
united: one body. Our sins and our history have divided us and we must
therefore pray for the Spirit to unite us once more".
 "God, who made Himself man, had our thirst, not only for water, but above all
the thirst for a full life, free from the slavery of evil and death. At the
same time, with His incarnation God placed His thirst, because God also
thirsts, in the heart of a man: Jesus of Nazareth. God thirsts for us, our
hearts, our love, and placed this thirst in Jesus' heart. Therefore, in the
heart of Christ, human and divine thirst meets. And the desire for the unity
of his disciples belongs to this thirst".
 "May Jesus' thirst increasingly become our own", he concluded. "Let us
therefore continue to pray and strive for the full unity of the Disciples of
Christ, in the certainty that He Himself is at our side and sustains us with
the strength of His Spirit so that this goal can be reached".

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 New appeal for a cease to the violence in Ukraine
 Vatican City, 26 January 2015 (VIS) - At the end of today's Angelus prayer, a
boy and a girl joined the Pope at the window of his study to read a message of
peace on behalf of Catholic Action of the diocese of Rome, which concludes its
traditional journey of the "Caravan of Peace" during these days. The young
people of Catholic Action present in the square released a balloon containing
messages of peace.
 Beforehand, the Pope recalled "with deep concern the escalation of the
clashes in east Ukraine, which continue to claim many victims among the
civilian population. While I assure my prayers to those who suffer, I renew my
heartfelt appeal for the resumption of attempts at dialogue in order to bring
an end to the hostilities".

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