Vatican City, Oct 31, 2016 / 10:34 am
Hours after landing in Sweden Pope Francis said that without God we can do nothing, but with him Catholics and Lutherans can work toward greater unity – not in order to forget the past, but to heal it so all Christians can be better witnesses of God's mercy.
"Jesus reminds us: 'Apart from me, you can do nothing.' He is the one who sustains us and spurs us on to find ways to make our unity ever more visible," the Pope said Oct. 31.
"Certainly, our separation has been an immense source of suffering and misunderstanding, yet it has also led us to recognize honestly that without him we can do nothing; in this way it has enabled us to understand better some aspects of our faith."
The Pope's homily was made jointly with a sermon by Rev. Martin Junge, General Secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, during a common prayer service between Lutherans and Catholics at the Lund Cathedral in Sweden.