Communiqué de presse: Benoît XVI: Sam Kobia prie pour l'ouverture œcuménique et un dialogue de conversion

Conseil oecuménique des Églises - Communiqué
Contact: + 41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org

Pour publication immédiate: 20 avril 2005

Benoît XVI: Sam Kobia prie pour l'ouverture œcuménique et un dialogue de conversion

En félicitant le pape nouvellement élu, le secrétaire général du Conseil œcuménique des Eglises (COE), le pasteur Samuel Kobia, a prié pour un "engagement renouvelé" en faveur de "l’ouverture œcuménique" et pour "un dialogue de conversion".

Décrivant Benoît XVI comme un homme "connu pour son intégrité théologique et sa loyauté ecclésiale, sa simplicité évangélique et sa sensibilité pastorale", le pasteur Kobia a exprimé l’espoir que sous son pontificat, "l’Eglise catholique romaine, avec un engagement renouvelé, s’attacherait à manifester dans la vie des fidèles et de l’Eglise tout entière les enseignements et l’esprit d’ouverture œcuménique dont le Concile Vatican II a donné l’exemple."

Dans la lettre qu’il a envoyée de Genève le 20 avril au pape nouvellement élu, le secrétaire général du COE souligne que la vision ecclésiologique du Concile Vatican II s’est montrée "ouverte à toutes les valeurs ecclésiales présentes chez les chrétiens d’autres traditions" et, par conséquent, a "inspiré, encouragé et renforcé l’engagement des fidèles de l’Eglise catholique romaine dans leur chemin à la rencontre de leurs sœurs et frères en Christ et dans l’expérience de la communion réelle bien qu’imparfaite avec eux."

"Nous prions, a ajouté le pasteur Kobia, pour que votre pontificat soit un temps béni de dialogue entre les Eglises, de dialogue dans la vérité et dans l’amour, de dialogue en tant qu’échange de dons entre les Eglises chrétiennes - un dialogue de conversion."

Ci-après le texte intégral de la lettre (en anglais):

Your Holiness Pope Benedict XVI,

"Grace, mercy and peace be with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father's Son, in truth and love" (2 Jn 3).

In unison with our Roman Catholic sisters and brothers, we praise our common Lord Jesus Christ for your election as the Bishop of Rome, the 264th successor of Peter, the Supreme Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church.

We give thanks to our common Lord Jesus Christ for granting the Roman Catholic Church a new Bishop of Rome, known for his theological integrity and ecclesial loyalty, his evangelical simplicity and pastoral sensitivity, a successor to Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XV, both known as "Primates of peace".

Your election coincides with the 40th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council, the great beginning of the modern ecumenical journey within the Roman Catholic Church.

We pray to our common Lord Jesus Christ, asking that your Pontificate constitute a time for the Roman Catholic Church to apply, in a renewed commitment, the teachings and the spirit of ecumenical openness exemplified in the Second Vatican Council to the life of her faithful and of the whole Church.

Through the documents of the Second Vatican Council, the Roman Catholic Church spoke courageously to her faithful and to the world. UnitatisRedintegratioemphasized the restoration of unity among churches as a priority and enabled the Roman Catholic Church to forge new ways of relationships with other Christian churches. Gaudium et Spes spoke of the Church in the modern world, and opened new ways of common Christian witness to the world.

We pray to our common Lord Jesus Christ, asking that your Pontificate be guided by the ecclesiological vision of the Second Vatican Council, a vision open to all ecclesial values present among Christians of other traditions, a vision that has prompted, encouraged and strengthened the commitment of the Roman Catholic faithful to the journey towards encountering their sisters and brothers in Christ and experiencing the real, though imperfect, communion with them.

More recently, interpreting the Second Vatican Council, John Paul II has issued the encyclical Ut Unum Sint. In this important document, Christian churches have gratefully acknowledged a spirit of humility, coming out clearly in expressions like "dialogue of consciences", "dialogue of conversion", and the "acknowledgment, jointly and to each other, that we are men and women who have sinned".

We pray to our common Lord Jesus Christ, asking that your Pontificate become a blessed time of dialogue between churches, of dialogue in truth and love, of dialogue as an exchange of gifts among Christian churches, a dialogue of conversion.

In the spirit of the Second Vatican Council, cooperation between the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the World Council of Churches has been strengthened through the Joint Working Group, and through full membership of the Roman Catholic Church in the Commission on Faith and Order, and of the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism. The level of trust and openness that was established has allowed a frank and open dialogue, has contributed to overcoming difficulties, and has maintained a close cooperation between the Roman Catholic Church and the fellowship of churches represented by the WCC.

We pray to our common Lord Jesus Christ, asking that your Pontificate strengthen existing instruments of working together and initiate new ways of cooperation between the Roman Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches.

In today's world, where violence, injustice, poverty and the HIV/AIDS pandemic are devastating so many lives, the concern for transmitting the spiritual resources of the churches to the world has become an ecumenical pastoral priority.

We pray to our common Lord Jesus Christ, asking that your Pontificate open new ways for Christian churches to share with one another their spiritual resources and together bring to the suffering world a message of healing and a message of hope.

In all these, you will find us ready to journey with you, ready to seek with you responses to the burning questions of our times, ready to witness together to the saving, liberating, healing and transforming power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

"Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen" (Eph 3:20).

Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia
General Secretary
World Council of Churches
Geneva, 20 April 2005

Informations complémentaires: Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org

Le Conseil œcuménique des Eglises s'attache à promouvoir l'unité des chrétiens dans la foi, le témoignage et le service, en vue d'un monde de justice et de paix. Communauté œcuménique d'Eglises fondée en 1948, le COE réunit aujourd'hui 349 Eglises protestantes, orthodoxes, anglicanes et autres, représentant plus de 560 millions de chrétiens; il travaille en coopération avec l'Eglise catholique romaine. Son secrétaire général est le Pasteur Dr Samuel Kobia, de l'Eglise Méthodiste du Kenya. Siège: Genève, Suisse.