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Feature News | Tuesday, January 05, 2021

Pope opens 2021 with a call to fraternity

'See in the other a brother or sister,' he says in monthly video asking prayers for special intention

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VATICAN CITY |  The Pope Video for January, the first one in 2021, was just released with the prayer intention that Francis is entrusting to the entire Catholic Church through the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network (which includes the Eucharistic Youth Movement – EYM).

The message chosen to open the year 2021 is dedicated to human fraternity. In response to all the challenges facing humanity, the Holy Father asks that we open ourselves to each other and unite, as human beings and as brothers and sisters, “with those who pray according to other cultures, other traditions and other beliefs.”

As he has said on other occasions, “There is no alternative: we will either build the future together or there will not be a future. Religions, in particular, cannot renounce the urgent task of building bridges between peoples and cultures.”

To summarize his message:

  • When we pray to God following Jesus, we come together as brothers and sisters with those who pray according to other cultures, other traditions and other beliefs.
  • We are brothers and sisters who pray.
  • Fraternity leads us to open ourselves to the Father of all and to see in the other a brother or sister, to share our lives or to support, to love, and to know each other.
  • The Church values God’s action in other religions, without forgetting that for us Christians, the wellspring of human dignity and fraternity, is in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
  • We believers must return to our sources and concentrate on what is essential. What is essential to our faith is the adoration of God and love of neighbor.
  • Let us pray that the Lord may give us the grace to live in full fellowship with our brothers and sisters of other religions and not fight each other, and praying for one another, open ourselves to all.

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