Benedict XVI Greets Indian Church Leader

Benedict XVI Greets Indian Church Leader [Excerpts]

Affirms Value of Eastern Tradition and Union With Holy See

VATICAN CITY, MAY 28, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI received in audience the leader of the Syro-Malankars, and encouraged him to maintain both the union with the Apostolic See and the specifically Eastern features of that tradition.

This morning in the Vatican, the Pope received Major Archbishop Issac Cleemis Thottunkal, major archbishop of Trivandrum of the Syro-Malankars, India.

The Holy Father told him: "Now the universal Church, together with all those who belong to your ecclesial tradition, is counting upon Your Beatitude to ensure that the Malankar community can proceed along a twofold path.

The Pontiff said: "Now is a time of new evangelization, a time of constantly renewed and convinced dialogue with all our brothers and sisters who share our Christian faith, a time of respectful and fruitful encounter between religions and cultures for the good of all, and especially the poorest of the poor.

"Our commitment to evangelization needs to be constantly renewed, as we strive to build peace, in justice and solidarity, for the whole human family."

[TBC: "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death" (Proverbs:14:12There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
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