What We Have Most Dear
At the end of the ceremony, Fr. Julián Carrón addressed this greeting to the new Archbishop

“What we have most dear in Christianity is Christ Himself; Christ Himself and all that comes from Him, since in Him dwells all the fullness of the Divinity in the flesh.” These words of the great Soleviev express the feelings with which today we participate in this event. It is an immense gratitude for the impressive grace of the Lord, who carries out His plan though the willingness of those He draws to Himself, making them friends to their fellow men, that is to say, witnesses. For us, this is the meaning of the Episcopal ordination of Fr. Paolo Pezzi–an identification with the mission of Jesus who wants man’s happiness.

Passion for the human glory of Christ in history, God’s companionship to man, is the witness that Fr. Giussani gave us all his life. From him we learned enthusiasm for Orthodoxy, grateful to our Orthodox brothers for having witnessed that Sobornost, which the West had abandoned in order to affirm the individual who, in refusing to belong to God, ended up slave of every circumstance and lost his liberty.

The long history of friendship with the Russian people made us live ecumenism as a boundless openness, as an attraction for the wonder of Beauty that is so dear to you, ready to exalt everything true that exists in all men.

In these days of feasting for the Catholic Church in Russia, may we be sustained by the desire for unity that dwells in the heart of Benedict XVI and that Jesus recommended to His disciples as a sign of His Victory. I humbly ask it as a gift from Our Lady of Tenderness.