John Paul II's Pastoral Visit to Romania
7th - 9th May 1999 - Bucharest
Friday, 7th May
Pope John Paul II - Address on arrival in Bucharest -
(in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese & Spanish)
"Here I am among you at last, a pilgrim of faith and hope. I embrace you all with affection and deep feeling, dear Catholic brothers and sisters from every community and Diocese, priests, consecrated persons and lay people, and I greet you in the words of the Apostle Paul: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ”.
My visit is meant to strengthen those ties between Romania and the Holy See which were so important for the history of Christianity in the region. As you know, tradition has it that the faith was brought to these lands by Peter's brother, the Apostle Andrew, who sealed his untiring missionary work with martyrdom in Patras. Other eminent witnesses to the Gospel, such as Sabas the Goth, Nicetas of Remesiana from Aquileia, and Laurence of Novae continued the work, and during the persecutions of the first centuries many Christians suffered martyrdom: they are the Daco-Roman martyrs such as Zoticus, Attalus, Kamasis and Philip, whose sacrifice helped the Christian faith sink deep roots in your land.
The seed of the Gospel, fallen on fertile ground, produced abundant fruits of holiness and martyrdom during these two millenniums. I am thinking of St John Cassian and Dionysius Exiguus, who helped pass on the spiritual, theological and canonical treasures of the Greek East to the Latin West, to the holy King Stephen, “a true athlete of the Christian faith” as Pope Sixtus IV called him, and of so many other faithful servants of the Gospel, including the prince and martyr, Constantin Brâncoveanu and more recently, the numerous martyrs and confessors of the faith in the 20th century.
Dear brothers and sisters of Romania! In this century now drawing to a close your country has experienced the horrors of harsh totalitarian systems, sharing the sufferings that were the lot of many other European countries. The communist regime suppressed the Church of the Byzantine-Romanian rite united with Rome and persecuted Bishops and priests, men and women religious and lay people, many of whom paid with blood for their fidelity to Christ. Some survived the tortures and are still with us. My heartfelt thoughts turn to the worthy and beloved Cardinal Alexandru Todea, Archbishop emeritus of Fagaras and Alba Iulia, who spent 16 years in prison and 27 under house arrest. As I pay homage to him, who in his illness, accepted with Christian patience from God's hands, is continuing his faithful service to the Church, I would also like to give due recognition to the members of the Romanian Orthodox Church and of other Churches and religious communities who suffered similar persecutions and grave restrictions. Death united our brothers and sisters in faith in the heroic witness of martyrdom: they have left us an unforgettable lesson of love for Christ and his Church."
"Cu mare bucurie sosesc astăzi în România, naţiune mult dragă mie şi pe care de multă vreme doream să o vizitez. Cu profundă emoţie i-am sărutat pământul, recunoscător înainte de toate lui Dumnezeu cel atotputernic care în prevăzătoarea sa bunăvoinţă mi-a hărăzit să văd realizat acest gând ... Românie, ţară-punte între Orient şi Occident, punct de răscruce între Europa centrală şi cea orientală, Românie, pe care tradiţia o numeşte cu frumosul titlu de "Grădina Maicii Domnului", vin la tine în numele lui Isus Cristos, Fiul lui Dumnezeu, şi al preasfintei Fecioare Maria. .."
Pope John Paul II - Address at Patriarchal Cathedral of Bucharest
(in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese & Spanish)
".. Christ has always accompanied the history of the Romanian nation. Indeed, how can we forget that the evangelization and formation of the first Christian communities coincided with the very formation of your ancient and noble people? How can we not point out with gratitude that the Gospel has deeply permeated its life and customs since its beginning, becoming a source of civilization and a principle of synthesis among the diverse inspirations of its culture? Thanks to the Christian faith, this country, linked with the memory of Trajan and the Roman world and which by its very name recalls the Roman Empire, but is also marked by Byzantine civilization, down the centuries has become a bridge between the Latin world and Orthodoxy, between Greek civilization and the Slavic peoples.
The history of your faith is significantly portrayed by the paintings on many façades of your churches, which, despite the wind and rain, continue to proclaim God’s love for mankind. Romanians too, throughout the tragic events of their past and more recent history, have courageously preserved the gift of Christian faith, enduring violent persecutions and the insidious influences of a life without God.
In giving thanks to the Lord for all the shining testimonies that have flowered in Romania, I offer the wish that faith in Christ will become ever more rooted in your hearts and shine forth in your lives, to be passed on in its integrity to future generations."
Address to the Bishops of Romania
(in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese & Spanish)
"I would like to open our meeting at the beginning of my Pastoral Visit to Romania with the words of this ancient hymn, perhaps by St Ambrose but also attributed to St Nicetas, an apostle of this land when it was still Roman Dacia. I have come here to thank with you the Father of all mercies and God of all comfort, who after years of suffering has allowed this noble nation to sing the praises of God in freedom. I ask him to make this visit abundantly fruitful for the Catholic Church in your country, for the Churches and the Christian communities as a whole, and for all the Romanian people."
Address to the Civil and Political Authorities
(in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese & Spanish)
".. The presence of representatives from the various Religious Communities invites me to stress the essential role of the Churches. It is their task to be artisans of peace, solidarity and fraternity, so that they will not act as antagonists, but as collaborators in the common good, rejecting everything that can exacerbate the conflicts, passions and ideologies which in past decades tried to prevail over individuals, local human communities and the principles of freedom and truth. While respecting the autonomy of temporal affairs, their spiritual mission invites them to be sentinels in the world, in order to call attention to the values which are the basis of social life and to identify from a human and spiritual standpoint any failure to show due respect to every person, to his dignity and to his basic freedoms, especially religious freedom and freedom of conscience."
Saturday, 8th May 1999
"Iubiţi fraţi, lanţurile voastre, lanţurile enoriaşilor voştri constituie gloria, mândria Bisericii: adevărul va făcut liberi! Au încercat să vă reducă la tăcere libertatea, să o sufoce, dar nu au reuşit. Voi aţi rămas liberi lăuntric, chiar dacă în lanţuri; liberi, chiar dacă în plânset şi lipsuri; liberi, chiar dacă toate comunităţile voastre erau profanate şi lovite. Dar "se făcea necontenit rugăciune către Dumnezeu, de către Biserică" (Fap 12,5) pentru voi, pentru ei, pentru toţi cei ce cred în Cristos, pe care minciuna voia să vă curme. Nu există fiu al întunericului care să poată suport ..."
Pope John Paul II - Homily at St Joseph Latin-Rite Cathedral, Bucharest
(in English, French, German, Italian, & Portuguese)
"An exhilarating task awaits you: to rekindle hope in the hearts of the faithful belonging to your resurgent Church. Devote time and attention to the laity, particularly to the young, who are the Church's future: teach them to meet Christ in liturgical prayer, restored to its beauty and solemnity after the constraints of secrecy, in diligent meditation on Sacred Scripture, in assimilation of the Fathers, theologians and mystics. Teach young people to strive for difficult goals, as befits the children of martyrs. Teach them to reject the facile illusions of consumerism; to stay in their land so that together they can build a future of peace and prosperity; to be open to Europe and the world; to serve the poor, who are the icon of Christ; to prepare themselves to be Christian professionals in order to imbue civil society with honesty and solidarity; not to distrust politics but to make their presence felt with that spirit of service it particularly needs. ...
“Above all these”, I say to you with St Paul, “put on love”. Even before being deprived of the priceless gift of freedom and of life itself, you suffered from not feeling loved, from being forced underground, with painful isolation from national and international life. Above all, a painful wound was inflicted on your relations with your brothers and sisters of the Orthodox Church, despite the fact that you shared with many of them the sufferings of bearing witness to Christ amid persecution. Even if communion between Catholics and the Orthodox is still incomplete, “I add that this communion is already perfect in what we all consider the highest point of the life of grace, martyria unto death, the truest communion possible with Christ who shed his Blood, and by that sacrifice brings near those who once were far off” (Encyclical Letter Ut unum sint n. 84).
For Christians these are days of forgiveness and reconciliation. Without this witness the world will not believe: how can we credibly speak of God who is Love if there is no respite from conflict? Heal the wounds of the past with love. May your shared suffering not lead to separation but accomplish the miracle of reconciliation. Is this not the marvel that the world expects from believers? You too, dear brothers and sisters, are called to make your valuable contribution to the ecumenical dialogue in truth and in charity, according to the directives of the Second Vatican Council and the Church's Magisterium."
Meeting with Patriarch Teoctist - Address to Members of the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church of Romania
(in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese & Spanish)
"I often thought of a Gospel scene as I was preparing for this much desired meeting: that of the Apostle Andrew, your first evangelizer, who comes full of enthusiasm to his brother Peter to tell him the tremendous news: “We have found the Messiah (which means Christ).” This discovery changed the lives of both brothers: leaving their nets, they became “fishers of men” and, after having been inwardly transformed by the Spirit of Pentecost, they set out on the paths of the world to bring everyone the news of salvation. With them, other disciples continued the Gospel work they had undertaken, inviting the nations to salvation and “baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”.
Your Beatitude, venerable Brothers in the Episcopate, we are the children of this evangelization. We too have received this message; we too have been redeemed in Christ. If we are meeting today, it is through the loving plan of the Most Holy Trinity, who, on the eve of the Great Jubilee, has granted us, the successors of these Apostles, to commemorate their meeting. The Church has grown and spread throughout the world; the Gospel has enriched cultures. Here in Romania too, the treasures of holiness, of Christian fidelity, sometimes purchased with one's life, have embellished this spiritual temple which is the Church. Today we thank God for this together.
The deep feeling prompted by Your Beatitude's visit to the city of Sts Peter and Paul, the Coryphaei of the Apostles, is still vivid in my mind. I have a touching memory of this meeting which took place in difficult times for your Church. It is now my turn, as a pilgrim of love, to pay homage to this land steeped in the blood of ancient and recent martyrs, who “have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Rv 7:14). I come to meet a people who welcomed the Gospel, assimilated it, defended it against repeated attacks and now considers it an integral part of their cultural heritage.
It is a culture inherited from ancient Rome, which has been patiently built up in a tradition of holiness beginning in the countless cells of monks and nuns who devoted their time to singing God's praises and, like Moses, to holding up their arms in prayer so that the peaceful battle of faith might be won for the benefit of the peoples of this land. The Gospel message thus reached the worktable of intellectuals, many of whom contributed through their charism to fostering its assimilation by the new generations of Romanians, starting out to build their future.
Your Beatitude, I have come here as a pilgrim to express the whole Catholic Church's affectionate closeness to you in the efforts of the Bishops, clergy and faithful of the Romanian Orthodox Church as one millennium ends and another emerges on the horizon. I am close to you and support you with esteem and admiration in the programme of ecclesial renewal which the Holy Synod has undertaken in such essential areas as theological and catechetical formation, to make the Christian soul, which is one with your history, flourish anew. In this work of renewal blessed by God, know, Your Beatitude, that Catholics are at the side of their Orthodox brethren in prayer and in their willingness to help in any useful way. The one Gospel is waiting to be proclaimed by everyone together, in love and in mutual esteem. How many fields are opening before us in a task which involves us all, with mutual respect and in the shared desire to be useful to mankind for whom the Son of God gave his life! Common witness is a powerful means of evangelization. Division, on the other hand, shows the victory of darkness over light. ...
The Orthodox Churches and the Catholic Church have come a long way on the road to reconciliation: I would like to offer God my deep and heartfelt gratitude for all that has been achieved, and I want to thank you, venerable Brothers in Christ, for the efforts you have made on this path. Has the time not come to resume theological research with determination, supported by prayer and by the sympathy of all the Orthodox and Catholic faithful?
God knows how much our world and also our Europe, which we hoped had been freed from fratricidal conflicts, need a witness of fraternal love which overcomes hatred and quarreling and opens hearts to reconciliation! Where are our Churches when dialogue falls silent and weapons roar their language of death? How can we teach our faithful the logic of the Beatitudes, so different from the reasoning of the powerful of this world?
Your Beatitude, dear Brothers in the Episcopate, let us restore visible unity to the Church or this world will be deprived of a witness that only the disciples of God’s Son, who died and rose out of love, can offer it so that it may be prompted to open itself to faith. And what can encourage the people of today to believe in him, if we continue to tear the seamless garment of the Church, if we do not succeed in receiving the miracle of unity from God by working to remove the obstacles which prevent its full manifestation? Who will forgive us for this lack of witness? I have sought unity with all my strength, and I will continue to do all I can until the end to make it one of the priority concerns of the Churches and of those who govern them in the apostolic ministry.
Your land is strewn with monasteries. From St Nicodemus of Tismana, buried in the mountains and forests, beats the heart of ceaseless prayer, of the invocation of the holy name of Jesus. Thanks to Paissy Velitchkovsky and his disciples, Moldavia has become the centre of a monastic renewal which spread to neighbouring countries at the end of the 18th century and later. Monastic life, which has always been present even during the time of persecution, has produced and still produces individuals of great spiritual stature, around whom many promising vocations have blossomed in recent years.
The convents, the churches covered with frescoes, the icons, liturgical ornaments and manuscripts are not only the jewels of your culture but are also a moving testimony of Christian faith, of a lived Christian faith. This artistic heritage, born of the prayer of monks and nuns, of artisans and peasants inspired by the beauty of the Byzantine liturgy, is a particularly significant contribution to the dialogue between East and West, as well as to the rebirth of brotherhood which the Holy Spirit is enkindling in us on the threshold of the new millennium. Your land of Romania, between Latinitas and Byzantium, can become the land of encounter and communion. It is crossed by the majestic Danube, which bathes the regions of the East and West: may Romania, like this river, know how to build relations of understanding and communion between different peoples, thus helping to strengthen the civilization of love in Europe and the world!
Your Beatitude, dear Fathers of the Holy Synod, not many days lie between us and the beginning of the third millennium of the Christian era. People have their eyes fixed on us in expectation. They strain their ears to hear from us, from our life more than from our words, the ancient announcement: “We have found the Messiah”. They want to see whether we too are capable of leaving the nets of our pride and our fears to “announce a year of favour from the Lord”.
We will cross this threshold with our martyrs, with all who have given their lives for the faith: Orthodox, Catholics, Anglicans, Protestants. The blood of martyrs has always been a seed which gives birth to new Christian faithful. But to do this, we must die to ourselves; we must bury the old man in the waters of rebirth and rise as new creatures. We cannot disregard Christ's call and disappoint the world's expectations, nor fail to join our voices so that the eternal word of Christ may ring out ever more clearly for the new generations.
Thank you for wanting to be the first Orthodox Church to invite the Pope of Rome to her country; thank you for giving me the joy of this fraternal meeting; thank you for the gift of this pilgrimage, which has allowed me to strengthen my faith through contact with the faith of fervent brothers and sisters in Christ!
“Come, let us walk together in the light of the Lord!”
To him be glory for ever and ever! Amen.
Thank you. An unforgettable visit, Romania. Here we have crossed the threshold of hope. Thank you. God bless us all."
"Beatitudine, Domnule Preşedinte, Veneraţi Fraţi întru Episcopat, Mult iubiţi fraţi şi surori, se apropie de sfârşit pelerinajul meu pe pământul vostru. Cu inima plină de gratitudine pentru momentele intense pe care le-am trăit, invoc harul Domnului peste toţi, prin mijlocirea fericitului Ieremia Valahul, şi cu mare afecţiune, vă binecuvântez Testo in italiano: Beatitudine, Signor Presidente, Venerabili Fratelli nell'Episcopato, Carissimi fratelli e sorelle. Si avvicina alla fine il mio pellegrinaggio sulla vostra terra. Con il cuore colmo di gratitudine per i momenti intensi che abbiamo vissuto i ... "
Sunday, 9th May 1999
Pope John Paul II - Regina Coeli
(in English, French, German, Italian, & Portuguese)
"Blessed be the name of the Lord for your kindness and courtesy in welcoming me these past few days.
I would like to express my warm and cordial gratitude first of all to His Beatitude Patriarch Teoctist, to the Holy Synod, the clergy and the faithful of the Orthodox Church of Romania who have opened their arms and their hearts to me!
May the Lord bless this ancient and illustrious Church as she fulfils her pastoral mission, and may he lead all believers to offer the world a renewed and joyful witness of full communion with one another and of courageous fidelity to the Gospel!
I extend an affectionate and fatherly greeting to the faithful of the Catholic Church. God has given me the joy of seeing your faces and praying with you. Like Paul to the elders of Miletus, I say to you: “I commend you to God and to the word of his grace.”
I invoke the protection of Mary, the glorious Mother of God, upon all the citizens of beloved Romania. May her children, who in the course of history have learned to trust in her powerful intercession, always be able to find in her a sure guide in advancing towards a future of prosperity and peace and in helping build a more just and more fraternal homeland. Amen!"
Homily - Podul Izvor
(in English, French, Italian & Portuguese)
" .. As this century comes to an end and we can already glimpse the dawn of the third millennium, we look back to years past in order to discern the signs of divine mercy that always accompany the steps of those who trust in God.
How can we forget the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, which opened a new era in the Church's history, instilling in her new energy? Thanks to the Constitution Lumen gentium, the Church has acquired a deeper awareness of being the People of God on the way to the fulfilment of the kingdom. We sense the mystery of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church and see the value of her mission in a particular way here in Romania, where Christians of the Eastern and Western traditions live side by side. They are striving for unity, anxious to respond to Christ's command, and thus they long for dialogue, reciprocal understanding and mutual help. This longing for fraternal cooperation, supported by prayer and inspired by mutual respect and esteem should always be fostered and encouraged, because only peace builds, while discord destroys.
In the name of this great ecumenical inspiration, I address all believers in Christ who live in Romania. I am here among you, spurred solely by the desire for genuine unity and the will to fulfil the Petrine ministry which the Lord has entrusted to me among my brothers and sisters in the faith. I give thanks to God that I can fulfil this ministry. I fervently hope and pray that full fraternal communion among all believers in Christ in East and West will be achieved as soon as possible. The Divine Master prayed for this unity, enlivened by love, in the Upper Room on the eve of his Passion and Death.
This Christian unity is first of all the work of the Holy Spirit, to whom we must constantly pray. On the day of Pentecost, the Apostles, who until that moment had been uneasy and fearful, were filled with courage and apostolic zeal. They were not afraid to proclaim Christ crucified and risen; they were not afraid to demonstrate their fidelity to the Gospel by their words and their lives, even when this meant persecution and death. Many in fact paid for this fidelity with martyrdom. The Church, guided by the Spirit, thus spread to every region in the world.
If misunderstandings and, unfortunately, painful separations have sometimes occurred within the one and undivided Mystical Body of Christ, the awareness of what unites all believers and their common call to unity has remained stronger than any division. At the end of the second millennium, paths that had diverged are drawing closer together and we are witnessing an intensification of the ecumenical movement to achieve the full unity of believers. Signs of this continual progress towards unity can be seen in your country, Romania, whose culture, language and history bear vivid marks of the Latin and Eastern traditions. My fondest hope is that Jesus' prayer in the Upper Room: “Father, that they may all be one”, will always be on your lips and never cease to beat in your hearts.
“He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him” (Jn 14:21).
These words of Jesus, entrusted to the disciples on the eve of his Passion, echo for us today as a pressing invitation to continue on this path of fidelity and love. To love Christ! This is our life's ultimate goal: to love him in the everyday situations of life so that the Father's love will be manifested to the world; to love him with all our strength so that his plan of salvation will be fulfilled and believers will attain full communion in him. May this ardent desire never die in our heart!
Dear Catholics of Romania, I know well how you suffered during the years of the harsh communist regime; I also know how courageously you have persevered in your fidelity to Christ and his Gospel. Now as we stand on the threshold of the third millennium, be not afraid: open the doors of your heart to Christ the Saviour. He loves you and is close to you; he calls you to a renewed commitment to evangelization. Faith is a gift from God and a heritage of incomparable value to be preserved and spread. In defending and fostering common values, always be open to active cooperation with all the ethnic, social and religious groups that make up your country. May your every decision be motivated by hope and love.
May Mary, Mother of the Redeemer, guide and protect you, so that you can write new pages of holiness and generous Christian witness in the history of Romania.
Amen! “Christ is risen!”.
Farewell Speech - Departure Ceremony, Bucharest Airport
(in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese & Spanish)
".. These have been days of deep emotion, which I have intensely felt and which will be cherished in my heart. Let us accept the events we shared together as a gift from God's hand, confident that they will bear fruits of grace for Christians and for all the people of Romania. Your country has a unique ecumenical vocation stemming from its very roots. Because of its geographical location and long history, its culture and tradition, Romania in a way is a house where East and West meet in natural dialogue.
The Church too breathes here with her two lungs in a particularly visible way, as we have seen in these days. Side by side, as were Peter, Andrew and the other Apostles gathered in prayer with the Mother of God in the first Upper Room, we have experienced a new spiritual Pentecost. The wind of the Holy Spirit has blown powerfully over this land and has spurred us to be firmer in communion and bolder in proclaiming the Gospel. We have practised the new language given to us, the language of fraternal communion, and have tasted its sweetness and beauty, its power and effectiveness.
While the door to the third millennium is about to open, we are asked to transcend our usual confines to make the wind of Pentecost more forcefully felt in the countries of the old continent and to the furthest ends of the earth. Unfortunately, the threatening crash of arms seems to be prevailing over the persuasive voice of love, and the outbreak of violence is reopening wounds which people were struggling patiently to heal.
I renew my wish that weapons will at last be laid down so that we can once again meet one another and engage in new and more effective dialogues of communion and peace! Christians have an important role in this regard, whatever their denomination. Today they are called to live and express their brotherhood with greater boldness, so that peoples can be encouraged, indeed, spurred to rediscover and to strenthen what they have in common. The spiritual event we have celebrated, blessed by St Demetrius and the holy martyrs of recent decades, is an experience to preserve and pass on, in the hope that the new millennium opening before us will be a time of renewed communion between the Christian Churches and the discovery of brotherhood among peoples. This is the dream I take with me as I leave this land so dear to me.
I would like to entrust this dream to you all. In particular, I would like to entrust it to the young. Yes, to you, dear young people of Romania! I would have liked to meet you personally; unfortunately it was not possible. This evening I make my own the words in which Peter announced the fulfilment of God's promise to those listening to him as the day of Pentecost was drawing to a close: “I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams” (Acts 2:17). In these days the Spirit is entrusting God's “dream” to you, young people: may all men and women belong to his family; may all Christians be one. Enter the new millennium with this dream!
You who have been freed from the nightmare of communist dictatorship, do not let yourselves be deceived by the false and dangerous dreams of consumerism. They also destroy the future. Jesus enables you to dream of a new Romania, a land where East and West can meet in brotherhood. This Romania is entrusted to your hands. Boldly build it together. The Lord is entrusting it to you. Entrust yourselves to him, knowing that “unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labour in vain” (Ps 126:1).
May the Lord bless Romania; may he bless its people and may he bless Europe!