POPE PAUL VI’S ADDRESS BEFORE “REGINA COELI”

6 May 1973

In his brief address before the “Regina Coeli” on 6 May, Pope Paul VI spoke of Saint Athanasius and of the visit of His Holiness Shenouda III.

We must explain to you the ceremony just now celebrated by us in the Basilica of St. Peter’s. We wished in this way to commemorate the XVI Centenary (no short period of time!) of the death of St. Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria in Egypt; and we wished thereby to honour the presence among us of the new Coptic-Orthodox Patriarch Shenouda III who, with his widely representative entourage, is our guest during these days.

Two questions spontaneously arise: who was St. Athanasius, and who are the Orthodox Copts? In other words, why does Rome attach solemnity to these two themes which are not deeply rooted in our religious culture? We may limit our reply to saying that precisely because of our insufficient information on these matters, we have felt it necessary to set out in bold relief these two subjects by celebrating in St. Peter’s a special service of divine worship known as the “Cappella Papale”.

On the other hand, no one is ignorant of the towering figure of Athanasius, precisely in relation to our profession of the Catholic Faith in regard to Jesus Christ our Lord. Like St. Peter in the Gospel, he replied to the ever insistent question: “Who is Jesus Christ?”. He replied in the same way as the first ecumenical Council, that of Nicea in 325, overcoming the doubts and the ambiguous opinions of the time (we are now in the fourth century at the beginning of the public life of the Church). His reply was that Jesus Christ is the Word of God, the Son of God made Man, of the same substance as the Father, Himself very God, together with the Holy Spirit, in the ineffable unity of the divine nature, living in the mysterious Trinity of the three Divine Persons. Here we are at the very heart of the supreme Reality, of the supreme Truth, of the first conquest of our Faith.

In a life full of troubles and hardships, Athanasius defended, especially against the rising tide of Arianism, this faith, which has ever received from Rome its expression and support. A symbol of the most firm fidelity and of witness heroically endured, he gives us the joy to have with us his Church, cut off from Catholic communion, also by political controversies no longer existing, after the council of Chalcedon (451), which defined that in the unity of the Person, there are in Christ two natures, divine and human. This Church is now reflourishing and in an act of reflection, while now it is happy to proclaim with us the identical Nicene Faith of Athanasius, champion of the unity of the East with the Latin West, himself a guest of the Roman Church for a long soyourn in 339, during the time of Pope Julius.

You see, dear sons, how the memories of the past become a presage and a hope for the future; and for their fulfilment, let us now pray.

(Information Service 22 (1973/IV) p.8. Reproduced in special issue of Information Service 76 (1991/I) p.7).