Coptic Church & Ecumenical Movement - Saint Mina Coptic ...

APPENDIX VIII
LETTER OF CARDINALS JOHANNES WILLEBRANDS AND PAUL
PHILIPPE TO THE COPTIC CATHOLIC PATRIARCH, STEPHANOS I
SIDAROUSS
March 29th, 1977
During the visit of Your Beatitude to Rome, last November, we had occasion to
discuss the dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Coptic Orthodox Church.
We were able to recognise that certain factors could harm relations between our
Churches and we examined how these relations might be further developed. The
joint committee, established following the visit of His Holiness Pope Shenouda III to
the Holy Father in 1973, presented certain recommendations to the Holy See for the
furtherance of the dialogue. In addition there have been several exchanges of
messages between the representatives of the Coptic Orthodox Church and those of
the Catholic Church.
In these circumstances we thought it useful to share with Your Beatitude and your
brothers in the episcopate the thinking of the Holy See on this subject, such as it has
been expressed on various occasions in recent months, above all in a letter from the
Cardinal Secretary of State addressed to Patriarch Shenouda and also in the letter of
the President of the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity, sent to His Excellency
Bishop Samuel.
As Your Beatitude knows, the Holy See considers the dialogue with the Coptic
Orthodox Church, in the search for full communion, as one of the most important
dialogues of the Catholic Church. The Coptic Orthodox Church is recognised as a
Church possessing apostolic succession and a faith and sacramental life which, in the
words of the Holy Father (Speech for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 1972),
put it in an “almost complete” communion with the Catholic Church. In ecumenical
dialogue the Coptic Orthodox Church is a partner with whom the Catholic Church
seeks disinterested collaboration in order to cooperate in the development of the
Christian life of her faithful and to open the way to a more perfect communion.
The Coptic Catholic Church has a specific role to play in this dialogue that she
carries out according to the principles of the conciliar Decree on Ecumenism and the
statements of the Holy Father. An essential part of this dialogue is the deepening, of
the spiritual and apostolic life of the Church. Hence, the need to partake in the
pastoral renewal occurring throughout the Catholic Church following the Second
Vatican Council.
It is in this context that His Eminence Cardinal John Villot, in the name of the Holy
Father, expressed his regret to His Holiness Shenouda III, that the episcopal
nomination of the Catholic patriarchal Vicar, His Excellency Monsignor Athanasios
Abadir, might have been thought by the Patriarch to be an obstacle to the search for
unity. The Pope, who continues to disapprove of acts of proselytism between our
Christian communities, is really convinced that the unity hoped for among all those
who believe in Christ, cannot come about without all the faithful, clergy and laity,
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