By Junno Arocho Esteves | Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY — Like an art restoration, Christians are called to restore the beauty of Christ’s peace in a world that is dirtied by war, violence and persecution, Pope Francis said.
The agencies that provide support and financial help to the Eastern Catholic churches and Christians in the Middle East, he added, can help with this “restoration so that the face of the church visibly reflects the light of Christ, the word made flesh.”
The pope spoke June 16 during a meeting with members of a Vatican coordinating body, known by its Italian acronym ROACO, which operates under the auspices of the Congregation for Eastern Churches. The funding agencies include two based in the United States: the Catholic Near East Welfare Association and the Pontifical Mission for Palestine.
Greeting the new “custos” or head of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land, which oversees many of the pilgrimage sites associated with the life of Christ, Pope Francis prayed for peace and for the success of ecumenical restoration work at the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.
The restoration work on a mosaic in the nave of the Bethlehem basilica, he noted, has brought to light a seventh angel in an angelic procession toward the place of Jesus’ birth. The discovery, the pope said, is a reminder of the “encrustations” on the church “due to various problems and sins.”
ROACO’s work, he said, “always must be guided by the certainty that underneath the material and moral encrustations, even underneath the tears and blood caused by war, violence, persecution — underneath this seemingly impenetrable layer there is a luminous face like that of the angel in the mosaic.”
Members of ROACO also spoke about the Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara Catholic churches in India and ongoing discussions about how best to provide pastoral care to members of the Eastern churches living outside the region of Kerala.
Catholics of the Eastern and Latin traditions must work together “without a spirit of division,” and give a common witness to Jesus Christ, the pope said.
“This communion, in every part of the world where Latin and Eastern Catholics live side by side, needs the spiritual wealth of both the West and the East,” the pope said.