The Community of Sant'Egidio remembers, with gratitude and friendship, Card. Edward Cassidy, who passed away the 10th April last in Newcastle (Australia) on the eve of Mercy Sunday, after a long life in service of the Church.
We have closely known and appreciated his intense and wide activity of dialogue, from diplomacy to ecumenism, always lived with simplicity and positivity, in the perspective of an urgent unity among Christian Churches. Acting as President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (1989 to 2001), Card. Cassidy attended several times the International Meetings of Prayer for Peace, promoted by Sant'Egidio in the spirit of Assisi, giving important contributions to the growth of dialogue between Christians and among religions.
Cassidy was deeply convinced of the irreplaceable role believers can play for humanity, as he said in 1995 in Florence: "If believers are able to live according to what is revealed in their own religion, then the world will be better. This - he continued - can generate a concrete change in history. With solidarity towards the least ones, religions can find a common ground of real encounter”.
His words on Ecumenical Dialogue, in Bucharest in 1998, on how Christian Churches could hasten the path towards unity are a powerful synthesis of his feelings and commitment to dialogue: “Let us leave the doctrinal questions aside, they will have to be overcome in their time. We need a change of mentality. It is not enough for Christians to simply be tolerant of one another. As brothers and sisters in one Lord, we must not just tolerate each other, rather love one another. We are called to take care of each other”.
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