Press release II

If it is true, as Cardinal Walter Casper has written in his message to the Conference, that “the Church has experienced how difficult it is to receive the Mystery of Christ in words” and of “how it has more than once in the course of centuries become a sign of division, a cause for conflict, a motive for intolerance, a screen for comfortably ignoring others and living arrogantly in one’s own condition”, the Transfiguration of the Lord, a feast celebrated in all Christian Churches, can become an occasion for invoking the sanctity which guides churches towards a visible communion…

The intention of the Conference is to propose a true itinerary for understanding the profound mystery of the Transfiguration and its full significance for contemporary man. The starting point of this itinerary is to listen attentively to the Word of God in the Scriptures (Enzo Bianchi, The Gospel of Transfiguration: A Biblical-Spiritual Exegesis). Gregory of Nazianzus saw in the Transiguration a synthesis of the Gospel, a doxological announcement of the Paschal mystery: announced in front of the Church, represented by Peter, James and John and in front of the Old Testament, Moses and Elijah, the Law and the Prophet, who appeared to share the glory of the Son.