Non-Catholic delegates put Christian unity in focus at Synod on Synodality

Michie · Oct 10, 2024

Three fraternal delegates — non-Catholic representatives of Christian churches participating in this year’s session of the Synod on Synodality — took center stage at Thursday’s Synod on Synodality press briefing held at the Vatican’s Holy See Press Office.

According to Cardinal Kurt Koch, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, the imperative for all Christian churches to journey, pray, and cooperate is Jesus’ own priestly prayer recorded in Chapter 17 of St. John’s Gospel: “So that they may all be one.”

“Jesus doesn’t command unity but he prays for it,” Koch told journalists on Thursday. “So if Jesus has prayed for unity, what can we do? We must do what Jesus did.”

Continued below.

Non-Catholic delegates put Christian unity in focus at synod

According to Cardinal Kurt Koch, the imperative for all Christian churches to journey, pray, and cooperate is Jesus’ own priestly prayer recorded in John 17.

www.catholicnewsagency.com

fide · Oct 10, 2024

The unity that Jesus prayed for is a unity in, through and because of Truth:

Jhn 17:17 Sanctify them in the truth; thy word is truth.
Jhn 17:18 As thou didst send me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.
Jhn 17:19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be consecrated in truth.
Jhn 17:20 "I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word,
Jhn 17:21 that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
Jhn 17:22 The glory which thou hast given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one,

This unity is supernatural and divine (vs 21), it is glorious (vs 22), it is in Truth, in His Word (vs 17).
It is most clearly not in diversity, it is not in partiality but in fullness and completeness, it is in consecrated "whole-heartedness" and not in superficial, shallow photo-friendly appearances but in the purity of the Sacred Heart of Christ Incarnate. It is not a dream, it is reality in the blood-bought of Christ who follow with His Cross on their backs.

Fruit of a Synod? I don't think so. The Sacred Bread of Life is a long way from the word-salad of diplomats at round tables.

Non-Catholic delegates put Christian unity in focus at Synod on Synodality

Michie

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