THE POPE RECEIVES THE PRIMATE OF THE ANGLICAN CHURCH: GREAT SAINTS, TEACHERS AND COMMUNITIES DEMONSTRATE OUR COMMON ROOTS

Vatican City, 16 June 2014 (VIS) – The awareness that the objective of unity may seem distant, but is always the aim of the path of ecumenism and common concern for the ills of humanity, especially human trafficking, were some of the key themes in the Holy Father's encounter with His Grace Justin Welby, archbishop of Canterbury, in the Vatican this morning.

“The Lord’s question – 'What were you arguing about on the way?' – might also apply to us. When Jesus put this question to his disciples they were silent; they were ashamed, for they had been arguing about who was the greatest among them. We too feel ashamed when we ponder the distance between the Lord’s call and our meagre response. Beneath his merciful gaze, we cannot claim that our division is anything less than a scandal and an obstacle to our proclaiming the Gospel of salvation to the world. Our vision is often blurred by the cumulative burden of our divisions and our will is not always free of that human ambition which can accompany even our desire to preach the Gospel as the Lord commanded”.

Despite these difficulties, “The Holy Spirit gives us the strength not to grow disheartened and invites us to trust fully in the power of His works. As disciples who strive to follow the Lord, we realise that the faith has come to us through many witnesses. We are indebted to great saints, teachers and communities; they have handed down the faith over the ages and they bear witness to our common roots”.

The bishop of Rome went on to remark that yesterday, on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, the archbishop of Canterbury celebrated Vespers in the Church of San Gregorio al Celio, “from which Pope Gregory the Great sent forth Augustine and his monastic companions to evangelise the peoples of England, thus inaugurating a history of faith and holiness which in turn enriched many other European peoples. This glorious history has profoundly shaped institutions and ecclesial traditions which we share and which serve as a solid basis for our fraternal relations”.

“On this basis, then, let us look with confidence to the future. The Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission and the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission represent especially significant forums for examining, in a constructive spirit, older and newer challenges to our ecumenical engagement. He also emphasised their shared “horror in the face of the scourge of human trafficking and forms of modern-day slavery” and thanked Archbishop Welby “for the leadership you have shown in opposing these intolerable crimes against human dignity”.

“In attempting to respond to this urgent need, notable collaborative efforts have been initiated on the ecumenical level and in cooperation with civil authorities and international organisations. Many charitable initiatives have been undertaken by our communities, and they are operating with generosity and courage in various parts of the world. I think in particular of the action network against the trafficking in women set up by a number of women’s religious institutes”. He concluded, “Let us persevere in our commitment to combat new forms of enslavement, in the hope that we can help provide relief to victims and oppose this deplorable trade. I thank God that, as disciples sent to heal a wounded world, we stand together, with perseverance and determination, in opposing this grave evil”.

From the Vatican Information Service's Daily Bulletin.

See also the address by Pope Francis to His Grace Justin Welby earlier today.

Pope Francis to impose the Pallium on Archbishops

Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of Los
Angeles, after receiving the pallium
from Pope Benedict XVI in 2011.

Annually, on the feast of Ss. Peter and Paul (June 29th) the Pope imposes the Pallium on Archbishops named since the previous year's feast. The pallium is a symbol of communion with the Holy Father and is given to these Metropolitan bishops who typically have one or more suffragan sees. The pallium is woven from wool sheared from sheep in the feast of the martyr St. Agnes (whose name means, of course, sheep), January 21st.

The list of Archbishops who will receive the pallium this year is an impressive display of the universality of the Church. This list was taken from the Vatican Information Service's daily bulletin.

METROPOLITAN ARCHBISHOPS WHO WILL RECEIVE THE PALLIUM

Vatican City, 25 June 2013 (VIS) – Pope Francis will impose the pallium upon the following metropolitan archbishops in this year's ceremony on 29 June, the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul:
1. Patriarch Manuel Jose Macario do Nascimento Clemente, patriarch of Lisbon, Portugal
2. Archbishop Dieudonne Nzapalainga, C.S.Sp., of Bangui, Central African Republic
3. Archbishop Carlo Roberto Maria Redaelli of Gorizia, Italy
4. Archbishop Claudio Dalla Zuanna, S.C.I., of Beira, Mozambique
5. Archbishop Prakash Mallavarapu of Visakhapatnam, India
6. Archbishop Antonio Carlos Altieri, S.D.B., of Passo Fundo, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
7. Archbishop Marek Jedraszewski of Lodz, Poland
8. Archbishop Philip Tartaglia of Glasgow, Scotland, Great Britain
9. Archbishop Salvatore Joseph Cordileone of San Francisco, California, USA
10. Archbishop Rolando Joven Tria Tirona, O.C.D., of Caceres, Philippines
11. Archbishop Rogelio Cabrera Lopez of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico
12. Archbishop Joseph William Tobin, C.Ss.R., of Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
13. Archbishop Carlos Maria Franzini of Mendoza, Argentina
14. Archbishop Lorenzo Ghizzoni of Ravenna-Cervia, Italy
15. Archbishop George Antonysamy of Madras and Mylapore, India
16. Archbishop Anil Joseph Thomas Couto of Delhi, India
17. Archbishop John Wong Soo Kau of Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
18. Archbishop Murray Chatlain of Keewatin-Le Pas, Manitoba, Canada
19. Archbishop Sérgio Eduardo Castriani, C.S.Sp., of Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil
20. Archbishop Peter Loy Chong of Suva, Fiji Islands
21. Archbishop Alfonso Cortes Contreras of Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico
22. Archbishop Alexander King Sample of Portland in Oregon, USA
23. Archbishop Joseph Effiong Ekuwem of Calabar, Nigeria
24. Archbishop Jesus Juarez Parraga, S.D.B., of Sucre, Bolivia
25. Archbishop Fabio Martinez Castilla of Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas, Mexico
26. Archbishop Ramon Alfredo Dus of Resistencia, Argentina
27. Archbishop Mario Aurelio Poli of Buenos Aires, Argentina
28. Archbishop Gintaras Linas Grusas of Vilnius, Lithuania
29. Archbishop Michael Owen Jackels of Dubuque, Iowa, USA
30. Archbishop Duro Hranic of Dakovo-Osijek, Croatia
31. Archbishop Moacir Silva of Ribeirao Preto, Sao Paulo, Brazil
32. Archbishop Jozef Piotr Kupny of Wroclaw, Poland
33. Archbishop Sergio Alfredo Gualberti Calandrina of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia
34. Archbishop Giuseppe Petrocchi of L’Aquila, Italy
The following archbishop will receive the pallium in his Metropolitan See:
35. Archbishop Francois Xavier Le Van Hong of Hue, Vietnam.

Archbishop of Canterbury visits Pope Francis in Rome

In a visit that has been widely covered in blogs and the media, the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby traveled to Rome to visit with Pope Francis and to pray at the tomb of St. Peter. Rocco Palma has a very full story which you can read at his blog Whispers in the Loggia. Mr. Palma includes in his report the official Vatican translation of Pope Francis' address, which reads in part:

Your Grace, Dear Friends,

On the happy occasion of our first meeting, I make my own the words of Pope Paul VI, when he addressed Archbishop Michael Ramsey during his historic visit 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’" (cf. Eph 2:19-20).

I know that during Your Grace’s installation in Canterbury Cathedral you remembered in prayer the new Bishop of Rome. I am deeply grateful to you – and 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 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.

I am grateful, too, for the sincere efforts the Church of England has made to understand the reasons that led my Predecessor, 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: I am sure this will enable the spiritual, liturgical and pastoral traditions that form the Anglican patrimony to be better known and appreciated in the Catholic world.

Hat tip to, among others, Charles Gilman for pointing out the stories.

Habemus Papam

The newly elected pope, Jorge Bergoglio, has taken the name Francis. Archbishop of Buenos Aires and Ordinary for Catholics of the Easter Rite in Argentina. Like many Argentines, he is of Italian descent. There is a biography of him on Wikipedia.