Vatican City, Jan 18, 2005 / 22:00 pm
"These are days of reflection and prayer”, the Holy Father said today in his general audience at the Vatican, recalling the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity which began yesterday.
He continued that the week is a fitting reminder to Christians “that the re-establishment of full unity among them, according to Jesus' will, involves all the baptized, both pastors and faithful."
John Paul II affirmed that the Week of Prayer "is taking place a few months after the 40th anniversary of the promulgation of the Decree 'Unitatis redintegratio' of Vatican Council II, a key text that firmly and irrevocably placed the Catholic Church within the ecumenical movement."
"This year," he went on, "the theme faces us with a truth basic to all ecumenical commitment: that Christ is the foundation of the Church.