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Journey of Faith

 

 

Patriarch Gregorios III attends Katholikentag
“Du fuehrst uns hinaus ins Weite”
Osnabrueck Germany 21-25 May 2008

 

 

• Wednesday 21 May: The Katholikentag, which are held every two years, opened in the evening with a ceremonial welcome in front of the Dom.
• Patriarch Gregorios and Archimandrite Mtanios Haddad later supped at the seminary.

• Thursday, 22 May: His Beatitude, with Father Mtanios, attended Mass for Corpus Domini, later participating in a procession headed by the Blessed Sacrament, borne under a canopy, through the city streets to the Dom.
• In the afternoon, there followed a podium discussion on the Holy Land, led by His Beatitude as chief contributor, joined later by a former inhabitant of Nablus, now living in Germany and lastly by the Israeli Deputy Ambassador, who made a late appearance due to security concerns.
• In the evening, pastoral walk through the town, enabling His Beatitude to meet many old friends and collaborators.

• Friday, 23 May: Television interview for His Beatitude in the garden of the Hotel Walhalla.
• Colloquium at the Walhalla stadium on the future of the European Union. His Beatitude was able to question José Manuel Barroso about the situation of the Middle East’s Christians and the eventual role of Europe in helping them to remain in their home countries and learning from their experience in dialogue with Islam.
• Vespers at Saint Joseph’s Church, celebrated by His Beatitude with Archimandrite Michael Schneider S.J. and responses sung by a choir of Slavonic tradition
• Attendance at a reception for charitable workers. Here His Beatitude met members of the Order of the Holy Cross of Jerusalem and others with whom he had worked in the Holy Land and elsewhere over many years.

• Saturday, 24 May: to Saint Joseph’s Church, Muenster, for Divine Liturgy, with veneration of a relic of the Holy and Life-giving Cross. In the course of the Liturgy, His Beatitude, as Protector of the Order of the Holy Cross of Jerusalem, proceeded to ordain a candidate, first as sub-deacon and then as deacon. Knights and Ladies of the Order present had organised a reception, which His Beatitude and Father Mtanios later attended. A significant presence at the Liturgy and reception were clergy and lay-members of the Melkite community of Brussels.
• Back in Osnabrueck, His Beatitude went on, accompanied by Father Mtanios, to celebrate the Liturgy at Saint Joseph’s Church. As this fell after 6p.m., the Liturgy was the first of Sunday and was very well attended, though in an outlying location.
• In the late evening, His Beatitude attended the wedding reception of a relative married just a few hours earlier. The family ties of the newly-weds spanned amongst others France, Germany and the Lebanon.

• Sunday, 25 May: Closing Mass was held in the Sports Stadium of Osnabrueck, attended by tens of thousands of Catholics. Also present were ecumenical visitors, Bishops of the Lutheran Church and others.
• After the Mass, Bishop Franz-Josef Bode of Osnabrueck held a closing luncheon at his residence, to which His Beatitude amongst others was invited. This enabled him to meet a number of German bishops and to converse with them on ecclesial matters.
• In the afternoon, His Beatitude left Osnabrueck to continue his travels in Germany, going to Duesseldorf and beyond in the ensuing days.

Notes V.C.