Erfurt, Germany, Sep 23, 2011 / 12:29 pm
Pope Benedict XVI said at a Sept. 23 meeting of Christian churches that their unity cannot be artificially engineered by committee and compromise.
“The faith of Christians does not rest on such a weighing of benefits and drawbacks. A self-made faith is worthless. Faith is not something we work out intellectually or negotiate between us,” said the Pope in his address to a joint prayer service of Catholics and Lutherans on the second day of his state visit to Germany.
Christian faith, he said, “is the foundation for our lives,” and so “unity grows not by the weighing of benefits and drawbacks but only by entering ever more deeply into the faith in our thoughts and in our lives.”
The Pope was participating in an ecumenical celebration held at the church of the ancient Augustinian convent in Erfurt. During the ceremony, which was attended by some 300 people, the Pope greeted leaders of the German Evangelical Church before listening to a Lutheran bishop read out Martin Luther's German translation of Psalm 146.
Meanwhile, Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, read the high priestly prayer of Jesus from the Gospel of St. John. In response, the Pope suggested that Jesus’ prayer formed a starting point for any attempts to undo the disunity created by Luther at the Reformation.
“In the prayer of Jesus we find the very heart of our unity. We will become one if we allow ourselves to be drawn into this prayer,” he said.