Greetings on the 60-year-anniversary of PRO ORIENTE

The founding of PRO ORIENTE by Cardinal Franz König in 1964 was associated with a great vision: the vision of reconciliation. 60 years have passed since then, during which the world has fundamentally changed several times. With it the churches in East and West. The many, many encounters during PRO ORIENTE proved to be a great blessing. They always took place on equal terms. I remember some of them, in which I was also able to take part, with great gratitude.

Our world is currently in a dramatic state of upheaval. And it seems as if the importance of reconciliation and dialogue is in danger of being largely ignored. It is all the more important that PRO ORIENTE does not allow itself to be diverted from the course of the original vision and continues to work consistently on what Jesus told his people in John 17. The less popular, the more important!

Personally, I greatly appreciate the small but remarkable sign that Cardinal Christoph Schönborn made me, as a Protestant Christian, an honorary member of PRO ORIENTE a few years ago. This is not a given, but it reflects the special spirit in which PRO ORIENTE's work takes place.

We wish you all the best and God's blessings for the future

Mag. Hermann Miklas, M.Ed. Superintendent em.

of the Protestant Diocese of Styria