Vatican
City, 14 June 2013
(VIS) – This morning in the Vatican, Pope Francis received the
Primate of all England and head of the worldwide Anglican Communion,
Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury, England, with the same words
that Paul VI greeted his predecessor, Michael Ramsey, during his
historic visit to the Vatican in 1966: “Your steps have not brought
you to a foreign dwelling ... we are pleased to open the doors to
you, and with the doors, our heart, pleased and honoured as we are
... to welcome you ‘not as a guest or a stranger, but as a fellow
citizen of the Saints and the Family of God’.” He also recalled
that, at the ceremony of his taking possession of the Cathedral of
Canterbury, the archbishop prayed for the new Bishop of Rome, a
gesture that the Pope was deeply grateful for. He added: “Since we
began our respective ministries within days of each other, I think we
will always have a particular reason to support one another in
prayer.”
“The
history of relations between the Church of England and the Catholic
Church,” the Pope continued, “is long and complex, and not
without pain. Recent decades, however, have been marked by a journey
of rapprochement and fraternity, and for this we give heartfelt
thanks to God. This journey has been brought about both via
theological dialogue, through the work of the Anglican-Roman Catholic
International Commission, and via the growth of cordial relations at
every level through shared daily lives in a spirit of profound mutual
respect and sincere cooperation. In this regard, I am very pleased to
welcome alongside you Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster.
These firm bonds of friendship have enabled us to remain on course
even when difficulties have arisen in our theological dialogue that
were greater than we could have foreseen at the start of our
journey.”
Francis
expressed his gratitude to the archbishop for “the sincere efforts
that the Church of England has made to understand the reasons that
led ... Pope Benedict XVI, to provide a canonical structure able to
respond to the wishes of those groups of Anglicans who have asked to
be received collectively into the Catholic Church.” He stated that
the structure “will enable the spiritual, liturgical, and pastoral
traditions that form the Anglican patrimony to be better known and
appreciated in the Catholic world.”
The
pontiff then noted that their meeting is an opportunity to recall
that “the search for unity among Christians is prompted not by
practical considerations, but by the will of the Lord Jesus Christ
himself, who made us his brothers and sisters, children of the One
Father. Hence the prayer that we make today is of fundamental
importance.”
Their
praying together “gives a fresh impulse to our daily efforts to
grow towards unity, which are concretely expressed in our cooperation
in various areas of daily life. Particularly important among these is
our witness to the reference to God and the promotion of Christian
values in a world that seems at times to call into question some of
the foundations of society, such as respect for the sacredness of
human life or the importance of the institution of the family built
on marriage. … Then there is the effort to achieve greater social
justice, to build an economic system that is at the service of man
and promotes the common good. Among our tasks as witnesses to the
love of Christ is that of giving a voice to the cry of the poor, so
that they are not abandoned to the laws of an economy that seems at
times to treat people as mere consumers.”
“I
know that Your Grace,” the Holy Father asserted, “is especially
sensitive to all these questions, in which we share many ideas, and I
am also aware of your commitment to foster reconciliation and
resolution of conflicts between nations. In this regard, together
with Archbishop Nichols [the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster,
England], you have urged the authorities to find a peaceful solution
to the Syrian conflict such as would guarantee the security of the
entire population, including the minorities, not least among whom are
the ancient local Christian communities. As you yourself have
observed, we Christians bring peace and grace as a treasure to be
offered to the world, but these gifts can bear fruit only when
Christians live and work together in harmony. This makes it easier to
contribute to building relations of respect and peaceful coexistence
with those who belong to other religious traditions, and with
non-believers.”
“The
unity we so earnestly long for,” concluded the Pope, “is a gift
that comes from above and it is rooted in our communion of love with
the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. … May the merciful Father
hear and grant the prayers that we make to him together.”
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