2012-01-29
In his residence in Cologne and on Sunday the 29th of January, His Eminence met a group of Antiochian families. He was so pleased to speak to them and to know them closely. The meeting included all the ages, and all the families were so happy to hear from His Eminence a brief talk about the Antiochian role in the history of Church.
He explained to them that the faith of the ancestors, the Antiochian people, had an important role in the preaching of the Christian faith. It is in Antioch, and for the first time, that the disciples of Jesus were called Christian. Antioch also produced a lot of Fathers. St. John Chrysostom was an Antiochian priest who was elected to continue his pastoral duties as a patriarch of Constantinople, to preach Christianity and witness to it in another place. And this is exactly our duty in Europe, to witness our faith through our daily life in Europe.
After the meeting all took the blessing of His Eminence and asked him to continue arranging such meetings.
