Put in a dais, decorations, some icons, white sheeting, an altar and seven candelabras, show in the Holy Father Benedict XVI, surrounded by all the Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops of the Oriental and Latin Churches of the Middle East, listen to the songs and chants, in succession Gregorian, Greek, Arabic or Syriac, add a colourful assembly with in the front row representatives of other Churches, including the Greek Orthodox Church which is the majority church in Cyprus with its Archbishop Chrysostomos II, and the President of the Republic of Cyprus, welcome the foreign workers living on the island and you will make the Eleftheria Sports Stadium in Nicosia the finest, the most Catholic, the most universal and the most moving of all cathedrals.
Mass by a Catholic Pope in an Orthodox land naturally does not attract a huge crowd. There were believed to be 8000 faithful inside and 2000 outside, but it is this small number, the discreet professionalism of the Cypriot and Vatican security forces that gave this intimate and family-like character to the celebration and that zest of Oriental hospitality which makes everything warmer and simpler in the greatest respect.
It was a beautiful celebration ! Archbishop Chrysostomos II had a beautiful gesture when he went up to the alter to receive the kiss of peace from the Holy Father and then from the Maronite Archbishop Mons. Youssef Soueif.
It was a well organized ceremony that had been studied for months, like the celebrations in Paphos and in the Franciscan Latin parish church, with the liturgies of the Custody and the Pope. On Sunday, like yesterday, with the seminarians of St. Saviour, after having set everything up, they also cleared everything away and cleaned up. They are tired but happy that everything went well. Except for the absence of Mons. Padovese, chairman of the conference of Turkish bishops, assassinated on the eve of the Holy Father’s departure for Cyprus and intensely present in the prayers of the Pope and the assembly, nothing was missing from this celebration, especially not the words of the Holy Father in his homily and when he handed over the Instrumentum Laboris for the forthcoming Synod for the Churches of the Middle East.
It was surprising that the Pope went to Cyprus on the occasion of this publication but the whole of his stay on the island delivered the keys to understand this event. Cyprus is experiencing a concentration of the tragedies and hopes of the Middle East, it has the same rich ecclesiastical diversity and the Pope came here to celebrate the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ because the Eucharist is at the centre of the unity of the Church and this is why he chose this feast day to give this working document for the Synod which has as its theme “Communion and sharing”.
According to the Instrumentum, (see the attachment), “ The faithful have clearly understood the double objective of the Special Assembly of the Synod of the Bishops for the Middle East : a) to confirm and reinforce the Christians in their identity, thanks to the Word of God and the Sacraments ; b) to revive the ecclesiastical communion between the Churches sui iuris, so that they can offer testimony of authentic, joyous and appealing Christian life. »
This is what the Holy Father’s journey to Cyprus will already have shown, revealing the rich tradition of the Church of the Orient, the possibility of unity in diversity, preaching Hope and dialogue at the heart of the crucial and crucifying situations experienced by the region.
This journey was very beautiful and came to an end with the visit to the Maronite cathedral of Notre-Dame-de-Grâces, at the Paphos Gate where the Pope was once again welcomed by Mons. Youssef Soueif, Maronite Archbishop of Cyprus. It is thanks to him and to Fr. Umberto Barato of the Custody as well as to all the Franciscans involved in the preparations and to the Latin Patriarchate that the Pope’s fine pilgrimage went well and will have been a powerful moment for the Churches of Cyprus and of the Middle East.
The work by those friars of the Custody who travelled to Cyprus for the service must also be acknowledged. For each and every one of them it was a fine experience: welcomed very brotherly by the Franciscan community of the school of the Custody of the Holy Land in Nicosia, assisted by the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart, they were able to give themselves with all their heart as everything had been organized in the best way possible to make things easy for them.
They did not count the hours despite the fatigue that they had accumulated as they had interrupted their examinations to come. Our prayers will assist especially those who will sit the bachelor exams in theology on 18th June. They all took part in the beauty of the event. Thank you. With the departure of the Pope, the lights ion Cyprus and on its Church have gone out, but it is as though the Holy Father had laid a bridge connecting us to them.
We are left with the precious gift of the Instrumentum Laboris. This document reflects fairly well the way in which the Church of the Middle East, in the political context it is experiencing, envisages its future and its relations both with Islam and with Judaism. "History has meant that we have become a “little leftover” but today we can also, through our behaviour, become a presence that counts,” ensures the document and the behaviour in question calls on some necessary conversions. Everything has yet to be done and the Synod in October will have to give more precise orientations and perhaps invent tools to renew Christian life in the Middle East.
In the meantime, the Holy Father left Cyprus pronouncing, with great respect and without accusations, the words that the President of Cyprus and Archbishop Chrysostomos II were waiting for. His journey to Cyprus will have highlighted the exemplary role that the island can be for the whole of the Middle East and his encouragements to the local Catholic Church went to the whole of the Church in the region.
In Jerusalem, we are waiting for the friars to return to hear their impressions directly from their lips.
Mab
◗ Eucharistic Celebration on the occasion of the publication of the Instrumentum laboris of the Special Assembly for the Middle East of the Synod of Bishops - Eleftheria sports centre (Nicosia, 6 June 2010)
◗ Consignment of the Instrumentum laboris of the Special Assembly for the Middle East of the Synod of Bishops - Eleftheria sports centre (Nicosia, 6 June 2010)
To follow and gain a better understanding of the Holy Father’s visit, please see the section "The Pope in Cyprus" on our site, updated with the videos of the Franciscan Media Center, and the site of the Custody’s publishers in Milan: www.terrasanta.net.
and
http://www.papalvisit.org.cy/cgibin…
and
www.lpj.org
Mass by a Catholic Pope in an Orthodox land naturally does not attract a huge crowd. There were believed to be 8000 faithful inside and 2000 outside, but it is this small number, the discreet professionalism of the Cypriot and Vatican security forces that gave this intimate and family-like character to the celebration and that zest of Oriental hospitality which makes everything warmer and simpler in the greatest respect.
It was a beautiful celebration ! Archbishop Chrysostomos II had a beautiful gesture when he went up to the alter to receive the kiss of peace from the Holy Father and then from the Maronite Archbishop Mons. Youssef Soueif.
It was a well organized ceremony that had been studied for months, like the celebrations in Paphos and in the Franciscan Latin parish church, with the liturgies of the Custody and the Pope. On Sunday, like yesterday, with the seminarians of St. Saviour, after having set everything up, they also cleared everything away and cleaned up. They are tired but happy that everything went well. Except for the absence of Mons. Padovese, chairman of the conference of Turkish bishops, assassinated on the eve of the Holy Father’s departure for Cyprus and intensely present in the prayers of the Pope and the assembly, nothing was missing from this celebration, especially not the words of the Holy Father in his homily and when he handed over the Instrumentum Laboris for the forthcoming Synod for the Churches of the Middle East.
It was surprising that the Pope went to Cyprus on the occasion of this publication but the whole of his stay on the island delivered the keys to understand this event. Cyprus is experiencing a concentration of the tragedies and hopes of the Middle East, it has the same rich ecclesiastical diversity and the Pope came here to celebrate the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ because the Eucharist is at the centre of the unity of the Church and this is why he chose this feast day to give this working document for the Synod which has as its theme “Communion and sharing”.
According to the Instrumentum, (see the attachment), “ The faithful have clearly understood the double objective of the Special Assembly of the Synod of the Bishops for the Middle East : a) to confirm and reinforce the Christians in their identity, thanks to the Word of God and the Sacraments ; b) to revive the ecclesiastical communion between the Churches sui iuris, so that they can offer testimony of authentic, joyous and appealing Christian life. »
This is what the Holy Father’s journey to Cyprus will already have shown, revealing the rich tradition of the Church of the Orient, the possibility of unity in diversity, preaching Hope and dialogue at the heart of the crucial and crucifying situations experienced by the region.
This journey was very beautiful and came to an end with the visit to the Maronite cathedral of Notre-Dame-de-Grâces, at the Paphos Gate where the Pope was once again welcomed by Mons. Youssef Soueif, Maronite Archbishop of Cyprus. It is thanks to him and to Fr. Umberto Barato of the Custody as well as to all the Franciscans involved in the preparations and to the Latin Patriarchate that the Pope’s fine pilgrimage went well and will have been a powerful moment for the Churches of Cyprus and of the Middle East.
The work by those friars of the Custody who travelled to Cyprus for the service must also be acknowledged. For each and every one of them it was a fine experience: welcomed very brotherly by the Franciscan community of the school of the Custody of the Holy Land in Nicosia, assisted by the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart, they were able to give themselves with all their heart as everything had been organized in the best way possible to make things easy for them.
They did not count the hours despite the fatigue that they had accumulated as they had interrupted their examinations to come. Our prayers will assist especially those who will sit the bachelor exams in theology on 18th June. They all took part in the beauty of the event. Thank you. With the departure of the Pope, the lights ion Cyprus and on its Church have gone out, but it is as though the Holy Father had laid a bridge connecting us to them.
We are left with the precious gift of the Instrumentum Laboris. This document reflects fairly well the way in which the Church of the Middle East, in the political context it is experiencing, envisages its future and its relations both with Islam and with Judaism. "History has meant that we have become a “little leftover” but today we can also, through our behaviour, become a presence that counts,” ensures the document and the behaviour in question calls on some necessary conversions. Everything has yet to be done and the Synod in October will have to give more precise orientations and perhaps invent tools to renew Christian life in the Middle East.
In the meantime, the Holy Father left Cyprus pronouncing, with great respect and without accusations, the words that the President of Cyprus and Archbishop Chrysostomos II were waiting for. His journey to Cyprus will have highlighted the exemplary role that the island can be for the whole of the Middle East and his encouragements to the local Catholic Church went to the whole of the Church in the region.
In Jerusalem, we are waiting for the friars to return to hear their impressions directly from their lips.
Mab
◗ Eucharistic Celebration on the occasion of the publication of the Instrumentum laboris of the Special Assembly for the Middle East of the Synod of Bishops - Eleftheria sports centre (Nicosia, 6 June 2010)
◗ Consignment of the Instrumentum laboris of the Special Assembly for the Middle East of the Synod of Bishops - Eleftheria sports centre (Nicosia, 6 June 2010)
To follow and gain a better understanding of the Holy Father’s visit, please see the section "The Pope in Cyprus" on our site, updated with the videos of the Franciscan Media Center, and the site of the Custody’s publishers in Milan: www.terrasanta.net.
and
http://www.papalvisit.org.cy/cgibin…
and
www.lpj.org