Pope notes difficult road toward Christian unity, also sees progress

Published: 2007-01-24

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The search for Christian unity is a long and difficult journey because it is a process of repentance and humility, Pope Benedict XVI said. At the same time, he said, over the past 40 years God has given Christians "broad spaces of joy, refreshing pauses, from time to time allowing us to breathe freely the pure air of full communion." At his weekly general audience Jan. 24, during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Pope Benedict offered a list of the ecumenical encounters he had in 2006 which he said provide proof of progress in the search for unity among Christ's disciples. The pope listed his meetings with leaders of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, the World Baptist Alliance and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America as well as his meetings and prayer with the spiritual leaders of the Anglican Communion and the Orthodox Church of Greece and his visit in Turkey with Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople.

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