Russian bishops see Catholicism as ‘creative minority’

September 18, 2023

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CWN Editor's Note: In a pastoral letter to the members of Russia’s small Catholic minority, the country’s bishops have recalled the statement by Pope Benedict XVI that the Church works best as a “creative minority.”

Archbishop Paolo Pezzi and his auxiliary, Bishop Nikolaj Dubinin, wrote:

At the beginning of Christianity and then many times throughout history, Christians were such a minority: small communities who sanctified the world around them, not just with new doctrine, but with “a lifestyle that drew people to Christ. Even if they rejected Christian doctrine, many Jews and Gentiles could not help but admire the relationships of mutual love, of true mercy, of caritas that existed in these communities.

The bishops urged their people not to feel overwhelmed by the difficulties that face them in Russia. A creative mission, they said, “does not wait for favorable circumstances.”

The above note supplements, highlights, or corrects details in the original source (link above). About CWN news coverage.

 

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