Rome : Message from the pope to the 26th European meeting of Taizé, in Hamburg
This year, Hamburg, in Germany has welcomed the European Meetings of the ecumenical community of Taizé,to which 60,000 young people belong, from December 29, 2003 to January 2, 2004. On this occasion, John-Paul II sent them a message, whose principle contents are as follows:
The pope calls on you to turn to your brothers, in order to recognize in each one of them the face of the Lord. Such a look helps to create brotherly relationship and gives confidence to those who are often the most despised and the most forgotten of society.
Your mission is to see to it that all men become each day more and more a people of brothers and sisters, where each one is recognized, not for what he has, but for what he is.
May you always have for others, as for yourselves, the look that Jesus Christ himself has for every human being, a look of tenderness, of mercy and of forgiveness, a look which sets them again on the road of life and opens up to them a future of hope.
These philanthropic remarks were on the same wave length as the other messages to the organizers of the meeting, like that of the orthodox patriarch of Moscow, Alexis II, the archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, as well as the Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan.
