Catholics accept a common date of Easter in the East, West, says Pope

The Vatican State (CNS) – celebrates Pope Francis Week’s willingness to accept a proposal for a common date to celebrate Easter in the west and east.

Note that the date of 2025 coincides on the West’s Gregorian calendar and the East Julian calendar, Pope Francis said that “I renew my appeal that this coincidence can serve as an appeal to all Christians to take a crucial step forward towards unit around a common date for Easter. “

“The Catholic Church is open to accepting the date everyone wants: A Date of Unit,” he said January 25, under an ecumenical evening prayer service in Roma’s Basilica of St. Paul outside the walls.

The service marked the end of the week’s prayer for Christian Unity, which focused on this year’s celebration of the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, which gave Christians a common creed and a formula to determine a common date for the celebration of the customer.

Before the Council of Nicaea in 325, different Christian communities celebrated Easter on different dates; The council decided that for the unity of the Christian community and its witness, Easter would be celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon after spring Equinox.

But the Julian calendar, which is what Christians used in the fourth century, was increasingly out of synchronization with the actual sun year, so March 21 – generally assumed to be the date of the Northern Hemisphere Spring Equinox – gradually “drive” Away from actual Equinox.

In 1582, Pope Gregory Reformed the XIII calendar, fell 10 days and caused Equinox to fall on March 21 again. Most Eastern Christians did not adopt the new calendar, which led to a situation where Easter is occasionally on the same day, but eastern Christian celebration can be as much as four weeks later.

Pope Francis has on several occasions confirmed the position that St. Paul VI officially took in the 1960s that if Eastern Christians agree on a way of determining a common date for Easter, the Catholic Church would accept it.

The ecumenical prayer service began with Pope Francis praying before St. Paul’s Tomb. He, along with Orthodox metropolitan polycarpos from Italy and Malta and of the Anglican Archbishop Ian Ernest, became director of the Anglican center of Rome. The Orthodox and Anglican bishopes also joined the pope at the end of the liturgy by giving their blessing to the crowd.

The theme of 2025 -week prayer was Jesus’ question to Martha from Bethany: “Do you believe this?”

In the Gospel of John, Martha tells Jesus that if he had been there, her brother Lazarus would not be dead. Jesus tells Martha, “I am the resurrection and life; Whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, ”and then he asks if she thinks. Martha responds with a declaration of faith: “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who comes to the world. “

Pope Francis said: “This tender meeting between Jesus and Martha of the gospel teaches us that even in deserted times we are not alone and we can continue to hope. Jesus gives life even when it seems that all hope has disappeared. “

“Hope can falter after difficult experiences such as a painful loss, a disease, a bitter disappointment or a sudden betrayal,” the pope said. “Although each of us may experience moments of despair or know people who have lost hope, the gospel tells us that Jesus always restore hope because he rises from the ash of death.”

Sometimes, the pope said, people may feel that the search for Christian unity has reached a dead end, or that ecumenical dialogue is “doomed to failure.”

“All this makes us experience the same anguish as Martha, but the Lord comes to us,” he said. “Do we believe this? Do we believe he is the resurrection and life? That he rewards our efforts and always gives us the grace to continue our journey together? Do we believe this? “

The anniversary of the Nicaea Council is “a year of grace, an opportunity for all Christians who recite the same creed and believe in the same god,” the pope said. “Let’s rediscover the ordinary roots of faith; Let’s preserve device! Let’s always get on! May the device we all search for exist. “