VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
   YEAR XXII - # 195   
   DATE 05-11-2015   
      
   Summary:   
   - Pope's message at the Global Christian Forum on religious persecution of   
   Christians   
   - Audiences   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Pope's message at the Global Christian Forum on religious persecution of   
   Christians   
    Vatican City, 5 November 2015 (VIS) - A message was published today from the   
   Holy Father to Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for   
   Christian Unity, and all the participants in the meeting of the Global   
   Christian   
   Forum which took place in Tirana, Albania from 2 to 4 November on the theme   
   "Discrimination, persecution, martyrdom: following Christ together".   
    The Pope extends special greetings to brothers and sisters of different   
   Christian traditions who represent communities suffering for their profession   
   of   
   faith in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. "I think with great sadness of the   
   escalating discrimination and persecution against Christians in the Middle   
   East,   
   Africa, Asia and elsewhere throughout the world. Your gathering shows that, as   
   Christians, we are not indifferent to our suffering brothers and sisters".   
    "In various parts of the world, the witness to Christ, even to the shedding of   
   blood, has become a shared experience of Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans,   
   Protestants, Evangelicals and Pentecostals, which is deeper and stronger than   
   the differences which still separate our Churches and Ecclesial Communities",   
   the Pope observed. "The communio martyrum is the greatest sign of our   
   journeying   
   together. At the same time, your gathering will give voice to the victims of   
   such injustice and violence, and seek to show the path that will lead the human   
   family out of this tragic situation".   
    Francis concludes by assuring all those present of his spiritual closeness,   
   and   
   expressing his hope that the martyrs of today, belonging to many Christian   
   traditions, "help us to understand that all the baptised are members of the   
   same   
   Body of Christ, His Church. Let us see this profound truth as a call to   
   persevere on our ecumenical journey towards full and visible communion, growing   
   more and more in love and mutual understanding".   
    The Forum urged persecutors to cease their violence, and exhorted governments   
   to respect and protect religious freedom, and especially to protect Christians   
   and others persecuted for their religious beliefs and the media to reflect   
   appropriately on violations of religious freedom and the discrimination and   
   persecution of Christians.   
    During the three days of the meeting, the participants began the day with   
   prayer in the orthodox cathedral of Tirana, dedicated to the Resurrection of   
   Christ, the Centre of the Evangelical Alliance of Albania, and the Catholic St.   
   Paul's Cathedral, to pray for the 200 million Christians persecuted in the   
   world. The Forum concluded on the day on which Albanese Catholics commemorate   
   the 25th anniversary of the first Mass celebrated in the Catholic cemetery of   
   Scutari by a priest who survived 50 years of atheist communism in Albania.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Audiences   
    Vatican City, 5 November 2015 (VIS) - Today, the Holy Father received in   
   audience:   
    - Stanislaw Tillich, minister-president of Saxony, Federal Republic of   
   Germany,   
   with his wife and entourage;   
    - Cardinal George Pell, prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy;   
    - Archbishop Joseph Marino, apostolic nuncio in Malaysia and East Timor, and   
   apostolic delegate in Brunei Darussalam;   
    - Archbishop Charles Henry Dufour of Kingston in Jamaica, Jamaica;   
    - Habeeb Mohammed Hadi Al-Sadr, ambassador of the Republic of Iraq, on his   
   farewell visit.   
      
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