Prudens haec mulier Metis die XXV mensis Augusti anno MDCCCXVII divite
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Congregatio pro Doctrina Fidei 403
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Acta Benedicti Pp. XVI 389
humiliation and spiritual re-birth. Your Holiness and the members of your
delegation have personally lived through these contrasting experiences in
your families and in your own lives. The restoration of freedom to the Church
in Armenia has been a source of great joy for us all. An immense task of
rebuilding the Church has been laid on your shoulders. I cannot but voice my
great esteem for the remarkable pastoral results that have been achieved in
such a short time, both in Armenia and abroad, for the Christian education of
young people, for the training of new clergy, for building new churches and
community centres, for charitable assistance to those in need, and for pro-
moting Christian values in social and cultural life. Thanks to your pastoral
leadership, the glorious light of Christ shines again in Armenia and the saving
words of the Gospel can be heard once more. Of course, you are still facing
many challenges on the social, cultural and spiritual levels. In this regard, I
must mention the recent difficulties suffered by the people of Armenia, and I
express the prayerful support of the Catholic Church in their search for
justice and peace and the promotion of the common good.
In our ecumenical dialogue, important progress has been made in clarify-
ing the doctrinal controversies that have traditionally divided us, particu-
larly over questions of Christology. During the last five years, much has been
achieved by the Joint Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic
Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches, of which the Catholicosate of All
Armenians is a full member. I thank Your Holiness for the support given to
the work of the Joint Commission and for the valuable contribution made by
your representatives. We pray that its activity will bring us closer to full and
visible communion, and that the day will come when our unity in faith makes
possible a common celebration of the Eucharist. Until that day, the bonds
between us are best consolidated and extended by agreements on pastoral
issues, in line with the degree of doctrinal agreement already attained. Only
when sustained by prayer and supported by effective cooperation, can theo-
logical dialogue lead to the unity that the Lord wishes for his disciples.
Your Holiness, dear friends: in the twelfth century, Nerses of Lambron
addressed a group of Armenian Bishops. He concluded his famous Synodal
Discourse on the restoration of Christian unity with visionary words, that
still affect us today: ''You are not wrong, Venerable Fathers: it is meritorious to
weep over days past in discord. However, today is the day that the Lord has made,
a day of gladness and joy... Let us then pray in order that our Lord give tenderness,
sweetness in greater abundance still, and that He develop on earth, by the dew of the