Cardinal Bertone this morning at the Synod

The Pope has decided to call all nuncios, apostolic delegates and permanent observers back to Rome this upcoming June for the Year of Faith. “It will be an opportunity”,  said Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Secretary of State, on Wednesday morning, 17 October, during the 15th General Congregation, “for an exchange of experiences and to deepen the feeling of mission for the Pontifical Representatives in today’s circumstances”. The Cardinal's intervention was centred on the contribution of the pontifical representatives and all the Holy See bodies to the new evangelization.

Cardinal Bertone also spoke at the beginning of the previous general congregation informing the Synod Father on Benedict XVI's decision to send a delegation to Syria in order to bring solidarity and spiritual closeness to the people there.

The news was welcomed by Synod participants, many of whom in their interventions have expressed concern for the situation in Syria. Concern was also expressed out by Metropolitan Hilarion, President of the Department of Public Relations of the Patriarchate of Moscow, who spoke on Tuesday afternoon.

Stigmatizing violence continues to inflict suffering on the people of Syria, the Metropolitan urged Catholics and Orthodox to form a single front to prevent  Christians from being   intimidated and suppressed, and to “work together to defend with determination our values. We cannot permit the situation in which thousands of Christians leave their countries because of persecution”. There were feelings that Hilarion personally conveyed  to Benedict XVI  during their meeting at the end of the congregation. Written in a statement released by the Patriarchate of Moscow, among other things, the Metropolitan “brought to the Pope the greetings of  the Patriarch of Moscow and of all Russia, 

Kirill I” and confronted together with the Pontiff  “a vast array of questions”.