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Posted by ACN News on 9/12/2008, 8:09 am
Message modified by board administrator 10/12/2008, 8:04 am
ACN News, Tuesday, 9th December 2008
Russia: ACN pays tribute on death of Patriarch Alexis II.
By Eva Maria Kolmann
The international Catholic pastoral charity Aid to the Church in Need has expressed its profound condolences on the death of His Holiness Patriarch Alexis II of Moscow and all Russia.
Father Joaquín Alliende, the president of ACN has written a letter of condolence to Metropolitan Kirill, who heads the external affairs office of the Moscow Patriarchate. He writes that the charity shares in the sorrow of Orthodox believers in Russia and throughout the world and is "especially close in prayer, at this time, to the Russian Orthodox Church".
Since 1992, the letter continues, ACN had had a close and fruitful relationship with the Patriarch and the charity was deeply grateful for the goodwill with which His Holiness had embraced its efforts for dialogue with the Russian Orthodox Church, and for the blessing he had given to ACN's work in Russia. Father Alliende's letter concludes: "We implore the intercession of Mary, the Immaculate and ever-virgin Mother of God, and of all the saints for the eternal rest of His Holiness and for consolation in their sorrow for all who mourn him".
It was in 1992 that Patriarch Alexis first met, in a private audience, with the founder of ACN, Father Werenfried van Straaten, and gave his blessing to the charity's work for dialogue with the Orthodox Church in Russia, a commitment made in response to the initiative of Pope John Paul II. Since that time there has been a close relationship, marked by mutual trust, between the Moscow patriarchate and ACN. The charity currently helps the Russian Orthodox Church above all for the training of her priests and for the furnishing of her seminaries and institutes of spiritual learning.
Patriarch Alexis II died on the morning of 5th December in his Moscow residence. He was born in 1929 in Tallinn, Estonia, and had been head of the Russian Orthodox Church since 1990.
For more information please contact the Australian office of ACN on (02) 9679-1929. e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org or write to Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148. Web: www.aidtochurch.org
Photo: The 1992 meeting of Patriarch Alexis with the founder of ACN, Father Werenfried van Straaten.
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to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148 ABN: 62 418
911 594
Ph/Fax (02) 9679-1929 e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org
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