VATICAN CITY, JAN. 25, 2009 (Zenit.org).- With the strength of their hope, united Christians can lead humanity to peace, says a Vatican spokesman.
Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican press office, reflected in his weekly television program, Octava Dies, on today’s theme for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity: «Christian Proclamation of Hope in a World of Separation.» Today is the final day of the week of prayer.
The spokesman said the theme «expresses with great power the precious service that Christians, together, can offer humanity.»
«With the strength of their hope, they can lead the human family to unity and peace … because hope and unity are inseparable goals,» he explained. «On the one hand, division and hatred kill hope; on the other hand, truly great hope is always a hope for all, and so supposes unity.»
We must «find the solid and durable sense of hope in such a way that human hopes are steps toward it and not continual sources of illusion and delusion,» Father Lombardi added. We must also «discover the power of reconciliation and forgiveness, without which war will never end.»
«These are the things that the world needs,» the spokesman concluded, «and Christians can find these things. And all Christians together can and must bear witness to them, because they know a deeper source than their confessional divisions: Jesus Christ and his Gospel.»
