Path to unity requires practical, theological steps, cardinals say

Published: 2004-11-15

ROCCA DI PAPA, Italy (CNS) -- Common prayer, joint efforts to help the poor and a united witness to Christian values can show the world how much divided Christians actually have in common and will prepare the way for full unity, two cardinals said. Cardinals Cormac Murphy-O'Connor of Westminster, England, and Ivan Dias of Mumbai, India, spoke Nov. 13 at a Vatican-sponsored conference celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council's Decree on Ecumenism. "An iceberg can be destroyed the hard way, by chiseling it to bits slowly or, more easily, by warming up the waters around it," Cardinal Dias told the 260 Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant and Anglican bishops and scholars attending the celebration. "The iceberg of a divided Christianity," he said, "will be more easily dissolved by allowing the Holy Spirit to warm up the relationships between the churches, than by strong strokes of arguments and discussions."

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