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Unitas: Come, rebuild my Church Urbi et Orbi COmmUniCatiOns laUnChes a new initiative fOr Unity
Left, Unitas Retreat participants at the San Damiano Retreat Center; right, at Rappahannock Cellars winery with founder John Delmare
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n October 3-5, 2021, at the San Damiano Spiritual a private server, a complex process that will allow us to Life Center in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, we operate independently of large digital platforms that have held a three-day retreat during which we launched increasingly turned towards censorship of dissenting our new initiative: Unitas: Come, Rebuild My Church. voices. We will also be continuing our Symposia and VirAfter more than a year of reflection and introspection, this tual Events, such as our Writer’s Chats and Virtual Pilmeeting was a chance for us to reveal the three pillars of grimages. In these, we feature inspiring personal reflecour work over the next 5 years, which will build on the tions coupled with fascinating virtual tours, uniting our almost 30 years of work of Urbi et Orbi Communications: worldwide pilgrims and helping them draw closer to the To foster Unity of each soul with God we will estabDivine. lish, in 2022, a Unitas Center in the Washington, D.C. To further Unity between Catholics and Orthodox area, to be followed by other, similar centers in Europe. we will continue the work of the Urbi et Orbi Foundation, These will be spaces for prayer, liturgy, scholarship, and established nine years ago to work for unity between seeking God together, where, in the words of Pope EmerCatholics and Orthodox. This work includes our support itus Benedict, “Christian life can assert itself in its own for Lebanese Christians, Maronite Catholic and Orthodox way.” They will also be “focal points of faith,” where we alike, through our Friends of Lebanon project, which will host conferences and roundtable discussions to take brings these suffering people relief in the form of “shorton key issues within our Church, as well as concerts and term help,” like food and water purifiers, and “long-term other cultural events. hope,” like scholarships and pracTo promote Unity within the tical assistance. We are coordinatCatholic Church, we will deepen ing with several Orthodox partners our coverage of key issues in the on this project. We also will conCatholic Church, in Inside the Vattinue sponsoring Scholarships ican magazine and other digital and Exchange Programs between and print publications. Through the Vatican and the Orthodox our Shine the Light project, we Churches, as we have for many will support objective research into years, and other cultural and spirand reporting on abuse and finanitual exchanges, such as concerts cial corruption in the Church, as of sacred music. We will begin to well as highlighting heroic examhold meetings of the Women’s ples of holiness, charity, and joy. In Council of the Heart, an interna2022, we will be transitioning to tional consortium of Catholic and Robert Moynihan with Gen. and Mrs. John Wakelin hosting all of our online content on Orthodox women. Finally, we will 2
