Vatican City (AsiaNews) - The Gospel helps people and communities of different cultures to recognize and realize good, truth and beauty and therefore to arouse the desire for encounter and openness to others. The hope of "knowing how to live together in diversity, through dialogue, sharing, building bridges and breaking down the barriers of mistrust and prejudice" was at the center of Pope Francis' thought in the meeting he had this morning with a delegation of parliamentarians from the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic, on the 1150th anniversary of the death of Saint Cyril, the saint who with his brother Methodius is "the evangelizer of the Slavic peoples" and who was declared the patron of Europe by John Paul II together with Saint Blessed.
Francis emphasized that Cyril knew how to weave "relations of knowledge and cordiality among peoples, becoming a link between different cultures and ecclesial traditions".
"I hope - he said - that such a significant spiritual and cultural heritage will inspire in all your fellow citizens the desire for encounter and openness to others. It is about knowing how to live in diversity, through dialogue, sharing, building bridges and breaking down the barriers of mistrust and prejudice. With these attitudes we become witnesses of solidarity and peacemakers. I hope that every day, through your important public function, you may be protagonists of fraternity, clear and irreproachable promoters of the common good, to offer hope to those who have elected you to a task of such great responsibility. ".
