HERE IS THE FULL TEXT OF THE POPE’s MESSAGE BEFORE HIS APOSTOLIC JOURNEY TO CYPRUS AND GREECE ON DECEMBER 2-6
Expensive brothers and sisters of Cyprus and Greece, kaliméra sas! [good morning!]
There are just a few days left for our assembly and I’m getting ready to return as a pilgrim to your magnificent lands, blessed by historical past, by tradition and by the Gospel!
I come to you with pleasure, exactly within the identify of the Gospel, within the footsteps of the primary nice missionaries, particularly the Apostles Paul and Barnabas.
It’s good to return again to the origins, and it’s important for the Church with a purpose to rediscover the enjoyment of the Gospel.
On this spirit I’m ready for this pilgrimage “to the springs”, and I ask everybody to assist me to prepare together with his prayers.
By assembly you I’ll quench my thirst on the springs of fraternity, that are so valuable now, when we now have simply begun a common synodal journey.
There may be “a synodal grace”, an apostolic fraternity that I’m eager for and with nice respect: it’s the go to to You, expensive Beatitudes Chrysostomos and Hieronymos, Heads of the native Orthodox Church buildings.
As a brother in religion, I’ll have the grace to be obtained by You and to satisfy You within the identify of the Lord of Peace.
And I come to you, expensive Catholic sisters and brothers, gathered in these lands in small flocks, beloved so tenderly by the Father and to which Jesus, the Good Shepherd, repeats: “Concern not, little flock” (Lk 12,32). I include affection to convey you the encouragement of the entire Catholic Church.
The forthcoming go to will give me the chance to drink as nicely from the traditional springs of Europe: Cyprus, the offshoot of the Holy Land on the continent; Greece, the house of classical tradition.
However even immediately Europe can not ignore the Mediterranean, the ocean that hosted the unfold of the Gospel and the event of nice civilisations.
The mare nostrum, which connects so many lands, urges us to sail collectively, and to not break up up by going our separate methods, particularly on this time when the battle towards the pandemic remains to be demanding a shared dedication and the local weather disaster is impending closely over all us.
The ocean, which embraces many peoples, reminds us with its open ports that the sources of residing collectively lie in mutual acceptance. Even now I really feel welcomed by your affection and I thank those that have been getting ready my go to for a very long time.
However I’m additionally considering of those that, lately and nonetheless immediately, have been fleeing from battle and poverty, touchdown on the shores of the continent or elsewhere, and discovering not hospitality, however hostility and even exploitation.
They’re our brothers and sisters. What number of have misplaced their lives at sea! As we speak “our sea”, the Mediterranean, is a superb cemetery.
As a pilgrim to the wellsprings of humanity, I’ll go to Lesbos once more, within the conviction that the sources of widespread life will solely flourish once more in fraternity and integration: collectively.
There isn’t any different means, and with this hope (“ilusión”) I come to you. Expensive brothers and sisters, with these emotions I ardently lengthy to satisfy you all, all! Not solely Catholics, however all of you! And on all of you I invoke the blessing of the Most Excessive, bringing even now earlier than Him your faces and your expectations, your worries and your hopes.
Na íste pánda kalá! [May you always be well!]