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