VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE
YEAR XXII - # 195
DATE 05-11-2015

Summary:
- Pope's message at the Global Christian Forum on religious persecution of
Christians
- Audiences

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 Pope's message at the Global Christian Forum on religious persecution of
Christians
 Vatican City, 5 November 2015 (VIS) - A message was published today from the
Holy Father to Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for
Christian Unity, and all the participants in the meeting of the Global
Christian
Forum which took place in Tirana, Albania from 2 to 4 November on the theme
"Discrimination, persecution, martyrdom: following Christ together".
 The Pope extends special greetings to brothers and sisters of different
Christian traditions who represent communities suffering for their profession
of
faith in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. "I think with great sadness of the
escalating discrimination and persecution against Christians in the Middle
East,
Africa, Asia and elsewhere throughout the world. Your gathering shows that, as
Christians, we are not indifferent to our suffering brothers and sisters".
 "In various parts of the world, the witness to Christ, even to the shedding of
blood, has become a shared experience of Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans,
Protestants, Evangelicals and Pentecostals, which is deeper and stronger than
the differences which still separate our Churches and Ecclesial Communities",
the Pope observed. "The communio martyrum is the greatest sign of our
journeying
together. At the same time, your gathering will give voice to the victims of
such injustice and violence, and seek to show the path that will lead the human
family out of this tragic situation".
 Francis concludes by assuring all those present of his spiritual closeness,
and
expressing his hope that the martyrs of today, belonging to many Christian
traditions, "help us to understand that all the baptised are members of the
same
Body of Christ, His Church. Let us see this profound truth as a call to
persevere on our ecumenical journey towards full and visible communion, growing
more and more in love and mutual understanding".
 The Forum urged persecutors to cease their violence, and exhorted governments
to respect and protect religious freedom, and especially to protect Christians
and others persecuted for their religious beliefs and the media to reflect
appropriately on violations of religious freedom and the discrimination and
persecution of Christians.
 During the three days of the meeting, the participants began the day with
prayer in the orthodox cathedral of Tirana, dedicated to the Resurrection of
Christ, the Centre of the Evangelical Alliance of Albania, and the Catholic St.
Paul's Cathedral, to pray for the 200 million Christians persecuted in the
world. The Forum concluded on the day on which Albanese Catholics commemorate
the 25th anniversary of the first Mass celebrated in the Catholic cemetery of
Scutari by a priest who survived 50 years of atheist communism in Albania.

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 Audiences
 Vatican City, 5 November 2015 (VIS) - Today, the Holy Father received in
audience:
 - Stanislaw Tillich, minister-president of Saxony, Federal Republic of
Germany,
with his wife and entourage;
 - Cardinal George Pell, prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy;
 - Archbishop Joseph Marino, apostolic nuncio in Malaysia and East Timor, and
apostolic delegate in Brunei Darussalam;
 - Archbishop Charles Henry Dufour of Kingston in Jamaica, Jamaica;
 - Habeeb Mohammed Hadi Al-Sadr, ambassador of the Republic of Iraq, on his
farewell visit.

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