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

POPE PAUL VI’S ADDRESS BEFORE THE “REGINA COELI”
May 6th, 1973
In his brief address before the "Regina Coeli" on May 6, Paul VI spoke of Saint
Athanasius and of the visit of Patriarch Shenouda III.
We must explain to you the ceremony just now celebrated by us in the Basilica of St.
Peter’s. We wished in this way to commemorate the XVI Centenary (no short period of
time!) of the death of St. Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria in Egypt; and we wished
thereby to honour the presence among us of the new Coptic-Orthodox Patriarch
Shenouda III who, with his widely representative entourage, is our guest during these
days.
Two questions spontaneously arise: who was St. Athanasius, and who are the Orthodox
Copts? In other words, why does Rome attach solemnity to these two themes, which are
not deeply rooted in our religious culture? We may limit our reply to saying that
precisely because of our insufficient information on these matters, we have felt it
necessary to set out in bold relief these two subjects by celebrating in St. Peter’s a special
service of divine worship known as the "Cappella Papale".
On the other hand, no one is ignorant of the towering figure of Athanasius, precisely in
relation to our profession of the Catholic Faith in regard to Jesus Christ our Lord. Like
St. Peter in the Gospel, he replied to the ever-insistent question: "Who is Jesus Christ?”
He replied in the same way as the first ecumenical Council, that of Nicaea in 325,
overcoming the doubts and the ambiguous opinions of the time (we are now in the fourth
century at the beginning of the public life of the Church). His reply was that Jesus Christ
is the Word of God, the Son of God made Man, of the same substance as the Father,
Himself very God, together with the Holy Spirit, in the ineffable unity of the divine
nature, living in the mysterious Trinity of the three Divine Persons. Here we are at the
very heart of the supreme Reality, of the supreme Truth, of the first conquest of our Faith.
In a life full of troubles and hardships, Athanasius defended, especially against the rising
tide of Arianism, this faith, which has ever received from Rome its expression and
support. A symbol of the most firm fidelity and of witness heroically endured he gives us
the joy to have with us his Church, cut off from Catholic communion, also by political
controversies no longer existing, after the council of Chalcedon (451), which defined that
in the unity of the Person, there are in Christ two natures, divine and human. This
Church is now re-flourishing and in an act of reflection, while now it is happy to
proclaim with us the identical Nicene Faith of Athanasius, champion of the unity of the
East with the Latin West, himself a guest of the Roman Church for a long sojourn in 339,
during the time of Pope Julius.
You see, dear sons, how the memories of the past become a presage and a hope for the
future; and for their fulfilment, let us now pray.
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