This image will again take center stage at the Synod.
Pope Francis prayed alongside representatives of 12 churches and Christian communities in this historic moment.
POPE FRANCIS
Like the great crowd of the Apocalypse we are here, brothers and sisters “of every nation, family, people and language,” coming from different communities and countries, daughters and sons of the same Father, animated by the Spirit received in Baptism, called to the same hope.
This symbol for ecumenism will be seen once again in 2024. But this year, the Pope has decided to increase the number of delegates: 16 will be present at this prayer vigil.
The date for this vigil was not chosen at random. It will be framed in the memory of the Second Vatican Council. Specifically, on the 60th anniversary of the publication of Lumen Gentium, a principal document of Vatican II.
CARD. MARIO GRECH
Secretary General of the Synod
The date of October 11 has been chosen to commemorate October 11, 62 years ago, when the Second Vatican Council was solemnly opened, inaugurating for the Catholic Church a new ecumenical era of which the present Synod is an expression and witness in the active desire to help the whole Church advance along the path of full unity.
In 2023, this joint prayer was attended by, among others, Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople and the Primate of the Anglican Church. Nearly 18,000 people, many of them youth from around the world, gathered in St. Peter's Square.
CA
TR: JD
