On Thursday evening, in their latest moment of prayer and friendship, Pope Francis and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, prayed together on the tomb of Saint Paul.
In an interview with Vatican News’ Delphine Allaire, Anglican Archbishop Ian Ernest, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Personal Representative to the Holy See and Director of the Anglican Centre in Rome, discussed its significance.
“It’s a moment of communion between two eminent leaders of the Church today, in communion with each other, and in communion with God,” he said.
Moreover, he insists, “it is a witness to the world that beyond the divisions that have been present for centuries; today we are able to be together at the tomb of Saint Paul, who has been the missionary to the nations, who has brought the Church to be a living institution that can proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ, so that the world be transformed and be and be and live under God’s Kingdom.”
Catholic and Anglican Bishops hold ecumenical summit
Catholic and Anglican Bishops are undertaking a week of dialogue, prayer, and pilgrimages, involving 50 bishops from 27 countries, to mark the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
The Christian Bishops are gathering for the “Growing Together” events, a week-long summit of ecumenical discussion and pilgrimage held in Rome and Canterbury from 22-29 January 2024.
The International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission (IARCCUM) has organized the event and says it will mark an important and symbolic occasion for Anglican-Catholic ties and the advancement of ecumenical dialogue.
The event, Archbishop Ernest underscored, is significant because “here are two Church leaders letting themselves be imbued with the spirit of Paul so that the mission of the Church can continue.”
“It’s a mission,” he said, “that needs togetherness. It’s a mission that needs integrity. And both leaders of the Church are men of integrity and men with a heart for mission.”
Friendship, mutual respect
He was then asked how he would describe the relations between Pope Francis and Archbishop Welby, and more generally, between Rome and Canterbury.
“I’ve been a witness to the growth of the friendship between Pope Francis and the Archbishop of Canterbury, as I’ve been here in Rome nearly five years now and they have been growing together,” he said, acknowledging that the two men were elected in the same year and have had to face the various challenges which come with their offices.
Through this, he observed, they have “knit strong bonds of friendship, strong bonds of mutual trust, and of mutual recognition.”
Citing the Archbishop of Canterbury’s speech at the opening of an exhibition at the Anglican Center, Archbishop said, “We are living… through a season of spring in the ecumenical relationship and between Canterbury and Rome.”
The presence of Anglican bishops and Roman Catholic Bishops together in Rome during this week of prayer and for Christian unity, he continued, is very significant.
“It shows how much has been done in the past 65 years after the Second Vatican Council, where we were separated for centuries.”
He noted that today “we are able to be together to discuss together. And even though we know of the differences that are still around, we are able to be together for the establishment of God’s kingdom in our broken world.”
Christian martyrdom
Earlier on Thursday, the Archbishop of Canterbury celebrated a Eucharistic liturgy at San Bartolomeo, the shrine of the new martyrs of the 20th and 21st centuries, and asked about the ecumenical value of martyrdom.
“I think it’s a Christian value. It’s part of our history. Martyrdom forms a very part of the life of the Church,” Archbishop Ernest said, while lamenting, “today it’s still that way, in the 21st century.”
“We are people who are being martyred for the cause of the Gospel or the cause of God’s presence in the world,” he concluded.
