REGISTER SUMMARY During his general audience on Jan. 24, Pope Benedict XVI once again emphasized the importance of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity and highlighted some ecumenical milestones during the last year. The Pope prayed for the protection of Mary and the saints on future ecumenical endeavors as well as by calling upon the Holy Spirit for his guidance. “He will give us complete unity when and how it pleases him. Strengthened by this confidence, let us go forward on the path of faith, hope and charity. The Lord is guiding us.”

Dear brothers and sisters,

Tomorrow ends the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which this year had the words from the Gospel of Mark, “He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak” (see Mark 7:31-37) as its theme.

Seeing the remarkable growth of the commitment to the restoration of unity among Christians, we, too, are able to repeat these words, which express the awe that people felt when Jesus healed the deaf mute. Looking back over these last 40 years, it is amazing how the Lord has awoken us from the lethargy of our self-sufficiency and indifference, how he makes us increasingly capable of “listening to each other” and not just “hearing each other,” and how he has loosened our tongues so that the prayer that we lift up to him has greater strength of conviction for the world.

Indeed, the Lord has truly granted us many blessings, and the light of his Spirit has enlightened many witnesses to this. They have demonstrated that we can obtain everything through prayer when we manage to faithfully and humbly obey God’s commandment of love and hold fast to Christ’s desire for unity among all his disciples.

A Call to Prayer

“The attainment of unity is the concern of the whole Church, faithful and shepherds alike,” the Second Vatican Council affirmed. “This concern extends to everyone, according to his talent, whether it be exercised in his daily Christian life or in his theological and historical research” (Unitatis Redintegratio, 5).

Our first common duty is to prayer. By praying, and praying together, Christians become more conscious of being brothers and sisters, even if they are still divided, and, by praying, we learn to listen better to the Lord because it is only by listening to the Lord and following his voice that we can find the road to unity.

Undoubtedly, ecumenism is a slow process, sometimes even discouraging when we give in to the temptation of “hearing” and not “listening” and speaking guardedly instead of speaking out courageously. It is not easy to give up “the comfort of our deafness,” in which it is as though the Gospel, which remains unchanged, were unable to renew life in us by affirming once again that providential leaven of conversion and spiritual renewal within each one of us.

As I said, ecumenism is a gradual process, a long, upward road, like any path of repentance. Nonetheless, it is a road that, after some initial difficulties and actually amid them, also presents ample opportunities for joy and refreshing stops along the way, and allows us from time to time to breathe fully the pure air of full communion.

The experience of these last decades after the Second Vatican Council has shown us that the quest for unity among Christians is carried out on various levels and in countless circumstances: in parishes and hospitals, through contacts among people, in the common work among local communities in every part of the world, especially in those regions where carrying out a gesture of good will towards your brother requires a great effort as well as a purification of memories.

Within this context of hope, marked by concrete steps towards full communion among Christians, are also included the meetings and the events that have characterized my ministry as Bishop of Rome and Shepherd of the Universal Church. I would like to review the more significant events that took place in 2006, which are a motive for joy and gratitude to the Lord.

A Year of Progress

The year began with the official visit of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches. The International Catholic-Reformed Commission entrusted to their respective authorities a document for their consideration that concluded a long process of dialogue that began in 1970 and was carried out over some 36 years. This document is entitled “The Church as a Community of Common Witness to the Kingdom of God.” On Jan. 25, 2006 — a year ago therefore — at the solemn conclusion of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, delegates for ecumenism in Europe, jointly commissioned by the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences and the Conference of European Churches, joined together in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls for the first step towards the Third European Ecumenical Assembly that will be held on Orthodox soil, in Sibiu, [Romania,] in September of this year — 2007.

During my Wednesday audiences, I was able to welcome delegations from the World Baptist Alliance and from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which has faithfully and periodically made visits to Rome. Moreover, I was also able to meet with members of the hierarchy from the Orthodox Church in Georgia, which I keenly follow, continuing that friendly bond that united His Holiness Ilia II and my venerable predecessor and Servant of God, Pope John Paul II.

Continuing with this chronology of ecumenical meetings during the last year, we come to the Summit of Religious Leaders that was held in Moscow in July of 2006. In a special message, the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Alexey II, requested that the Holy See be part of it. The subsequent visit of Metropolitan Kirill of the Patriarchate of Moscow, who expressed the intention to reach a more explicit normalization of our bilateral relations, was very useful. The visit of the priests and students from the College of the Diakonia Apostolica of the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church of Greece was equally welcome.

I am happy to also recall that, in its General Assembly in Porto Alegre, the World Council of Churches reserved ample space for Catholic participation. On that occasion, I sent a special message. I also sent a message to the General Meeting of the Methodist World Conference in Seoul. Moreover, I recall with pleasure the cordial visit of the secretaries of Christian World Communions, an organization of mutual information and contact between different denominations.

Finally, as we continue on with the chronology of the year 2006, we come to the official visit last November of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of the Anglican Communion. I shared with him and his entourage a significant moment of prayer in the Redemptoris Mater Chapel of the Apostolic Palace.

As regards my memorable apostolic journey to Turkey and my meeting with His Holiness Bartholomew I, I would like to recall the numerous gestures that were more eloquent than words. I take this opportunity to greet once again His Holiness Bartholomew I and thank him for the letter he wrote me upon my return to Rome. I assure him of my prayers and my commitment to action so that some consequences will ensue from the embrace of peace that we gave one another during the Divine Liturgy in the Church of St. George in the Phanar.

The year ended with the official visit to Rome of the Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, His Beatitude Christodoulos, with whom we exchanged significant gifts: icons of the Panaghia, the All Holy, and of Saints Peter and Paul embracing.

Pray for Unity

Are these not moments of great spiritual value, moments of joy, and moments to savor in the course of the slow ascent to unity, of which I have spoken? These moments highlight the commitment — often silent but intense — that unites us in the quest for unity. They encourage us to make every possible effort to persist on this slow but important ascent. We commend ourselves to the constant intercession of the Mother of God and of our protector saints so that they will sustain and help us not to draw back from our good resolutions and so that they will encourage us to intensify all our efforts, praying and working with confidence, convinced that the Holy Spirit will do the rest. He will give us complete unity when and how it pleases him.

Strengthened by this confidence, let us go forward on the path of faith, hope and charity. The Lord is guiding us.

Register translation

of the Jan. 24 catechesis.