The division of the Christians is "in contradiction" with "the will of Christ, who prayed for everybody to be one thing just before he died". Yesterday, those words were spoken by Card. Walter Kasper, president of the Papal del Council for the promotion of Christian unity, in the homily pronounced yesterday evening during the celebration of the Corpus Domini feast in the Catholic Cathedral of God's Mother in Moscow. The Eucharist - said the cardinal - is "the sacrament of unity. It makes up the unity of the Church, and it is the sign of the unity of the Church. In his latest encyclical, Pope John Paul II recalled this old tradition of the Orient and the West. If we ponder over this truth, we realize how absurd it is for Christians to be divided in the celebration of the Eucharist; it is also absurd that they cannot eat the same bread and drink from the same chalice". “Division among the Christians and the Churches – added Card. Kasper - is in contradiction with the basic sacrament and the highest mystery of the Church”. Moreover, on recalling the will of Jesus, “let everybody be one thing”, the cardinal wondered: “Did we take this will of His seriously? Not enough, perhaps. Therefore, there is reason to pray uninterruptedly; and in every Eucharistic celebration, we pray for peace and the unity of the Church, above all; but just that is not enough, we must be active, do our best and pave the way to the recomposition of unity”. The Vatican representative is in Russia from 21st to 30th May, and the journey programme includes a long series of meetings and visits, such as a meeting with His Holiness, Patriarch Alexius II, to whom Card. Kasper will deliver a message and a gift from His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI.

news by SIR