Denver Catholic

3 DENVER CATHOLIC | NOVEMBER 12-25, 2016 Vatican Notes Planning Your Will and Special Gifts Personally – Leave a legacy of what matters to you most. Financially – Wisely manage the assets that God has entrusted to you, in full compliance with the doctrine of the Catholic Church. Spiritually – Strengthen our parishes and our Catholic community through your charitable giving. The Catholic Foundation of Northern Colorado is here to help you plan your Will, including the opportunity for special gifts that you may not be able to create on your own. As Catholic faithful, we believe our earthly treasure is a gift from God, and we can give it a way to serve the greater good. Give alms. Provide money bags for yourselves that do not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven. LUKE 12:33–34 www.TheCatholicFoundation.com giving@thecatholicfoundation.com Jean Finegan | 303.867.0613 Deacon Steve Stemper | 303.468.9885 BY CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY H ours after landing in Sweden, Pope Francis said that with- out God we can do nothing, but with him Catholics and Lutherans can work toward greater unity – not in order to forget the past, but to heal it so all Christians can be better witnesses of God's mercy. "Jesus reminds us: 'Apart from me, you can do nothing.' He is the one who sustains us and spurs us on to fi nd ways to make our unity ever more visible," the Pope said Oct. 31. "Certainly, our separation has been an immense source of suƒ ering and misunderstanding, yet it has also led us to recognize honestly that without him we can do nothing; in this way it has enabled us to understand better some aspects of our faith." The Pope's homily was made jointly with a sermon by Rev. Martin Junge, general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, during a common prayer service between Lutherans and Catholics at the Lund Cathedral in Sweden. Pope Francis was in Sweden Oct. 31-Nov. 1 as part of a joint commemo- ration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. The event also marked 50 years of ecumenical dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation. It is the fi rst time a Pope has traveled to Scandinavia since St. John Paul II's 1989 visit. During the service Catholics and Lutherans also read out fi ve joint ecu- menical commitments, including the commitment to always begin from a perspective of unity. Pope Francis and Bishop Younan then signed a joint statement together. The Pope's sermon refl ected on the 15th chapter of the Gospel of John, where it likens God the Father to the vine grower, "who tends and prunes the vine in order to make it bear more fruit." Both sermons spoke about the image of the vine as indicating Christ's desire for unity among his people. Just as Jesus, the "true vine," is one with the Father, in order to bear fruit we must also be one with him, Francis said. "We can feel his heart beating with love for us and his desire for the unity of all who believe in him. He watches over us, and his gaze of love inspires us to purify our past and to work in the present to bring about the future of unity that he so greatly desires." Quoting St. John Paul II, Pope Fran- cis said "we must not allow ourselves to be guided by the intention of setting ourselves up as judges of history but solely by the motive of understanding better what happened and of becoming messengers of truth." We shouldn't be resigned to "divi- sion and distance," but instead take this opportunity to mend a "critical moment" in Lutheran and Catholic history by moving beyond "controver- sies and disagreements," he said. SOURCE: CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY 'With God alone Christian unity is possible,' Pope says in Sweden Pope Francis embraces Bishop Dr. Munib A. Younan, president of the Lutheran World Federation, during a joint prayer service at the cathedral in Lund for the Pope's apostolic visit to commemorate the 500th anni- versary of the Reformation. PHOTO: © L'OSSERVATORE ROMANO

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