Benedict XVI sent a message to the Taizè Community on the occasion of the European Meeting, organized every year by the community for the last day of the year, held for the first time in Berlin, until January 1st, at the invitation of the Catholic and Protestant Churches and the City of Berlin.
«While you are meeting in Berlin with thousands of young people from across Europe and other continents, to seek together with the brothers of the Taizè Community to deepen the wellsprings of faith, his Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI joins you in prayer and encourages you to open pathways of confidence throughout the world», reads the message published on the community's website.
"You know that faith is not blind naiveté", the Pope adds. "Freeing you from the bondage of fear, this trust, drawn from your faith in Christ and in the life of his Holy Spirit in your hearts, makes you more forward-looking and willing to address the many challenges and difficulties that the men and women of today have to face."
Messages were sent to the Community by, among others, the Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-Moon, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, German President Christian Wulff, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, Martin Junge, that of the World Communion of Reformed Churches, Setri Nyomi, and of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Olav Fykse-Tveit.