On January 17, Pope Francis opened the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity by greeting an ecumenical delegation from Finland.
“Those who are touched by God’s grace cannot turn in on themselves and live only for themselves;“ the Pope said; “they are always on the march, always driven to go forward, and to go forward together.”
The Pope mentioned two approaching historical landmarks concerning Christian unity: the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicea, which cemented the unity of Christian doctrine; and the 500th anniversary of the Augsburg Confession, “when Christians were about to set out on different paths.”