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Cardinal Urges Week of Prayer for Christian Unity Participants to Live a Unique Statement May 8th, 2017
By Fr. Harry Winter, OMI
As Antonio Ponce, OMI, and I took part in the 2017 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, held in Minneapolis May 1-4, we listened to a first ever message from a cardinal to the participants of this event (started in 1969 and held annually). Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, asked us to examine and live together the short and vital 5-page statement “Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World, Recommendations for Conduct.”
One reason the document is so extraordinary is that it was approved by three very different groups: the World Council of Churches, the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, and the World Evangelical Alliance. Another reason is that it begins by affirming, “Mission belongs to the very being of the church,” and then bonds social justice, ecumenism and interreligious dialogue.
Although approved in late January, 2011, we are all puzzled and disturbed that this statement remains virtually unknown. The 400 participants in the Week of Prayer have resolved to make it publicized.
Most Rev. Denis J. Madden, retired Auxiliary Bishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore and Rev. Elizabeth A. Eaton, Presiding Bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Participants of the National Workshop on Christian Unity 2017
