Vatican Information Service
10.12.2005
SUMMARY OF SYNOD OF BISHOPS: OCTOBER 11 – 12
Fourteenth General Congregation
Fifteenth General Congregation

VATICAN CITY, OCT 11, 2005 (VIS) – During the Fourteenth General
Congregation of the Eleventh Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of
Bishops, held this afternoon in the Vatican’s Synod Hall, apart from
speeches by the Synod Fathers, the fraternal delegates were given an
opportunity to address the gathering. The president delegate on duty was
Cardinal Juan Sandoval Iniguez.

At the start of this afternoon’s session, Archbishop Nikola Eterovic,
secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, recalled that today is the 43rd
anniversary of the opening of Vatican Council II and the feast of Blessed
John XXIII.

Following are excerpts of some of the speeches delivered by fraternal
delegates and Synod Fathers:

METROPOLITAN JOHANNIS ZIZIOULAS OF PERGAMO, GREECE. “It is a great honor for
me to be given the opportunity to address this venerable episcopal Synod and
bring to it the fraternal greetings and best wishes of the Ecumenical
Patriarch Bartholomew and the Church of Constantinople. The invitation to
our Church to send a fraternal delegate to this Synod is a gesture of great
ecumenical significance. We respond to it with gratitude and love. We
Orthodox are deeply gratified by the fact that your Synod also regards the
Eucharist as the source and summit of the life and mission of the Church. It
is extremely important that Roman Catholics and Orthodox can say this with
one voice. There may still be things that separate our two Churches but we
both believe that the Eucharist is the heart of the Church. It is on this
basis that we can continue the official theological dialogue of our two
Churches, which is now entering a new phase. Eucharistic ecclesiology can
guide us in our efforts to overcome a thousand years of separation. For it
is a pity to hold the same conviction of the importance of the Eucharist but
not be able to share it at the same table.”

REV. FILIPPO VAYLTSEV OF THE PATRIARCHATE OF MOSCOW, RUSSIA. “The Eucharist
is the central and most important point of the life of the Church and of
every Christian. Hence, the weakening of Eucharistic awareness leads to a
destruction of ecclesiastic awareness, … and to errors in the
understanding of Christian values. … We would be very pleased if our
experience of Eucharistic life, both past and present, proves useful and
helpful to the Roman Catholic Church. … It must not be forgotten that
preparation for communion in the Russian Orthodox Church also includes,
apart from inner preparation, ‘The Rule’ (strict fasting for three days,
visits to Church during these three days, prayers for communion, and special
Eucharistic fasting after midnight), and Confession is also compulsory.
However, these strict rules are seen by the Church not as an obligation, but
as a measure that was formed historically in accordance with tradition, and
that people apply to themselves.”

MOR SEVERIUS MALKE MOURAD OF THE SYRO-ORTHODOX PATRIARCHATE, SYRIA. “In our
Syrian Orthodox Church, we celebrate the divine liturgy in Syriac-Aramaic,
the language of our Lord Jesus; and during the divine liturgy the very same
words which Jesus said in the Upper Room are recited. And the priest who
celebrates this Sacrament, has to celebrate it alone. I feel proud that I
live in the Monastery of St. Mark in the Old City of Jerusalem, where Jesus
had His Last Supper. … The presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist is not
only His bodily presence, but all His fullness in humanity and divinity. So
Lord Jesus is present in all parts of the two elements. … St. Paul the
Apostle exhorts the believer to spiritually prepare himself before he comes
to receive holy communion with faith, reverence and a pure conscience, and
should cleanse his body and observe the pre-communion fast at 12 midnight.
We used to give the sacraments of holy communion to the children immediately
after they receive the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation.”

BISHOP NAREG (MANOUG) ALEMEZIAN, ECUMENICAL OFFICIAL OF THE GREAT HOUSE OF
CILICIA, ARMENIA. “The Armenian word used to designate the Holy Eucharist is
‘Surp Patarag,’ which means holy sacrifice. In the liturgical life of the
Church we are at God’s service (liturgy) and offer sacrifice of thanksgiving
(Eucharist) for gifts received from Him. Holy Eucharist is centered on the
sacrificial giving of our Savior and generating a communion of love with God
and our fellow beings by the power of the Holy Spirit. … In assessing the
constructive role of bilateral and multilateral ecumenical dialogues in
discussing the theme of ‘Church as Communion,’ I encourage all of us to
engage in the study of Eucharistic ecclesiology, which situates the unity of
the Church in the local celebration of the Holy Eucharist presided over by
the bishop in communion with his brother bishops. In this respect, the
distinctive role of the bishop is underlined as the one who takes care of
the flock entrusted to him by the Good Shepherd, tending it with a love that
is most fully revealed in the Eucharistic partaking of the one bread for a
spiritual and universal communion in the mystical Body of Christ.”
BISHOP LUIGI PADOVESE O.F.M. Cap., APOSTOLIC VICAR OF ANATOLIA, TURKEY. “I
speak as bishop of the Church of Anatolia, an area that saw the first great
expansion of Jesus’ message and in which Christians are now reduced to just
a few thousand. The only Christians in the city of Tarsus, homeland of the
Apostle Paul, are three nuns who welcome pilgrims; pilgrims who must get a
permit in order to celebrate the Eucharist in the only remaining
church-museum. The same is true for the church-museum of St. Peter in
Antioch. In that city was born John Chrysostom, the 16th centenary of whose
death in exile falls in 2007. With his homilies, Chrysostom reminds us that
the Eucharist was and is the privileged place for announcing Christ. His
memory, as well as the more recent recollection of bishops such as Clemens
von Galen and Oscar Romero, is a living testimony of the bond between the
memorial of Jesus’ sacrifice and the people who found therein the motivation
and strength for a proclamation undertaken with intelligence and courage and
frankness.”