Pope says all Christians must work together in name of peace
GENEVA — Pope Francis journeyed Thursday to the wellheeled city of Geneva to encourage all Christians, despite their differences, to join in efforts to foster justice and fight poverty.
The pontiff’s day-long “ecumenical pilgrimage” to the lakeside Swiss city that embraced the Protestant Reformation was aimed at stressing what can unite, rather than divide, Christians.
During his visit, Francis met with a group of Korean Protestants, four from the North and four from the South. Their handshakes and smiles built on the pontiff’s oft-voiced hopes for peace and unity in the region, especially with the recent U.S.North Korea summit.
Francis pitched for greater togetherness at an ecumenical prayer service hosted by the World Council of Churches, which is marking its 70th anniversary this year. The WCC is a fellowship of 350 churches that aims to show the unity of the Christian faith. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member.
The Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit, a Lutheran minister from Norway who is the WCC’s general secretary, told reporters he hoped the Pope’s greeting will be a “gesture that will inspire” the Koreans.
Korean Protestants regularly attend the Council’s meetings, but the show of unity comes amid a thaw in relations between the two Koreas, and between the United States and North Korea.
Addressing an ecumenical gathering, Francis said Christians were called to “respond to the cry of all those, in every part of the world, who suffer unjustly from the baleful spread of an exclusion that, by generating poverty, foments conflicts.”
“The more vulnerable are increasingly marginalized, lacking their daily bread, employment and a future, while the rich are fewer and ever more wealthy,” the Pope said. “Let us see what we can do concretely, rather than grow discouraged about what we cannot.”
One of the council officials who addressed Francis, Agnes Abuom of the Anglican Church of Kenya, said she and other women at the gathering wore black as a reminder of violence against women.
Earlier in the day, the Pope told his non-Catholic Christian hosts: “I have desired to come here, a pilgrim in quest of unity and peace. I thank God because here I have found you, brothers and sisters, already making this same journey.”
In remarks of welcome, U.S. Methodist Bishop Mary Ann Swenson told the pontiff that his visit has inspired those making a “common journey of pilgrimage of justice and peace.”
In his first speech of the day, Francis said that “all you need to do is read history” to see how religious divisions have led to wars and destruction. He added that it is possible to “pray, evangelize and serve together.”
His last public event was an early evening mass at an exhibition hall.