1332 Acta Apostolicae Sedis - Commentarium Officiale

annual Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation on 1 September, following

the longstanding practice of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

Your Holiness, it is incumbent upon humanity to rediscover the mystery

of mercy, "the bridge that connects God and man, opening our hearts to

the hope of being loved forever despite our sinfulness" ( Misericordiae Vultus,

2). For this reason I have called for an Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy,

a favourable time to contemplate the Father's mercy revealed fully in his

Son, Jesus Christ, and to become ourselves an effective sign of God's love

through our mutual pardon and works of mercy. It is providential that the

anniversary of that historic Joint Catholic-Orthodox Declaration concerning

the removal of the excommunications of 1054 occurs on the eve of the Year

of Mercy. Following Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I, Catholics

and Orthodox today must ask pardon of God and one another for divisions

that Christians have brought about in the Body of Christ. I ask you and all

the faithful of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to pray that this Extraordinary

Jubilee may bear the spiritual fruits for which we yearn. I willingly assure

you of my prayers for the events that your Church will celebrate in the

year to come, especially the Pan-Orthodox Great Synod. May this important

occasion for all the Orthodox Churches be a source of abundant blessings

for the life of the Church.

With fraternal affection in the Lord, I assure you of my spiritual close-

ness on the joyous feast of the Apostle Andrew, and I willingly exchange

with Your Holiness an embrace of peace in the Lord Jesus.

From the Vatican, 30 November 2015

FRANCISCUS PP.