Pope Meets with Anglican Primates in Rome

Speaking to the Primates of the Anglican Communion, Pope Francis says that even the very earliest Christians disagreed

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Article by Joseph Tulloch (Vatican News)
 
Senior clergy from the Anglican Communion are in Rome this week for the body’s 2024 Primates Meeting – the first of its kind to be held in the Eternal City. On Thursday morning, participants, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, met with Pope Francis in the Vatican.

Long history of cooperation
Pope Francis began his address by thanking Archbishop Welby for his presence, noting that he “began his service as Archbishop of Canterbury around the same time that I began mine as Bishop of Rome.”
 
“Since then,” the Pope added, “we have had many occasions to meet, to pray together and to testify to our faith in the Lord. Dear brother Justin, thank you for this fraternal cooperation on behalf of the Gospel!”
 
He stressed in particular the pair’s joint trip to Sudan in 2023, which, he said, was “really beautiful”.

Papal primacy
Pope Francis went on to thank the gathered bishops for having chosen Rome, the “City of the Apostles Peter and Paul”, as the location for their meeting this year.

“I realise”, the Pope said, “that the role of the Bishop of Rome is still a controversial and divisive issue among Christians.”
 
He quoted Pope Gregory the Great’s definition of the Bishop of Rome as servus servorum Dei, or ‘servant of the servants of God’, suggesting that it accurately captures the reality that the Pope’s authority can never be detached from his service to the Christian community.
 
“For this reason,” Pope Francis stressed, “it is necessary to engage in ‘a patient and fraternal dialogue on this subject, a dialogue which, leaving useless controversies behind’, strives to understand how the Petrine ministry can develop as a service of love for all.”
 
Thankfully, the Pope noted, “positive results have been achieved in the various ecumenical dialogues on the question of primacy as a ‘gift to be shared’.”

The Apostles and the Holy Spirit
Another key theme of Pope Francis’ address were the lessons that the earliest Church might offer for modern ecumenism.
 
While, the Pope said, the Acts of the Apostles is above all concerned with “the joyful spread of the Gospel”, the author “does not conceal moments of tension and misunderstanding, often born of the frailty of the disciples, or different approaches to the relationship with past tradition.”

We often forget, the Pope noted, that even these earliest Christians - who had “known the Lord and had encountered him as risen from the dead” - were divided in their understanding of the faith.
 
We, like them, Pope Francis suggested, must learn to entrust ourselves to the Holy Spirit.
 
“We are called,” he said, “to pray and to listen to one another, seeking to understand each other’s concerns and asking ourselves … whether we have been docile to the promptings of the Spirit, or prey to our own personal or group opinions.”

The following text about the meeting is taken from the Anglican Communion News Agency that was published on 2 May 2024
 
Primates of the Anglican Communion represent diverse cultural settings and Christian traditions, but through the Primates’ Meeting they come together to discuss shared priorities and concerns and discern ways to cultivate shared wisdom and consensus.
The meeting with the Pope was a time of deep encouragement to the primates. Throughout his reign, Pope Francis has consistently called Christians to prioritise relationships and church unity.

Justin Welby, The Archbishop of Canterbury spoke of the Pope’s address and its significance to the Primates and the Anglican Communion, saying it was: “… a most beautiful address around the nature of unity and synodality and of the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the church – which took our eyes away from ourselves and lifted them to the faithfulness of God in Jesus Christ and the gift of the Spirit.

“This Primates’ Meeting has been wonderful and has now become a moment in history where we have seen the closeness of our relationship with Rome at the pastoral, the missional and the spiritual level, which demonstrates the progress made over the last half century from real antipathy, to deep bonds of friendship all round the world. I am so grateful to God for the gift of the Spirit who worked among us this morning and has been working among us all week.”

This is the second time this year that Pope Francis and the Archbishop of Canterbury have joined together in Rome. In January, they commissioned Anglican and Roman Catholic bishops at Vespers in the Basilica of St Paul’s Outside the Walls, in an ecumenical partnership during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. During his Homily at Vespers, Pope Francis said, ‘First our brothers and sisters, then the structures’ (January 25).
 
In February 2023, Pope Francis was joined by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Moderator of the Church of Scotland, on an ecumenical peace and solidarity visit to South Sudan in February 2023. 

The audience with Pope Francis has happened on the closing day of the Primates’ Meeting, which has seen the primates go on pilgrimage to holy sites in Rome including the Abbey of Tre Fontane, The Basilica of St Paul’s Outside the Walls and the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere.

It has been an important conclusion to a week of discussions for the Primates’ Meeting which has been hosted by the Anglican Centre (ACR) in Rome. The ACR works with Anglican Communion and Vatican offices on joint projects for education, ecumenism, and shared mission, and cultivates friendship between Anglicans and Catholics to deepen communion.  Archbishop Ian Ernest is The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Personal Representative to the Holy See and Director of the ACR.

The Primates’ Meeting gathers Anglican Archbishops, Presiding Bishops and Moderators from member churches of the Anglican Communion. The meeting has been held in Rome due to its historical and spiritual significance for the whole Christian world. Pope Gregory the Great sent Augustine of Canterbury on mission to England in 597. Especially since the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), Rome has been a centre of inter-Christian encounter and ecumenical research.  

For more information

The full text of the address by Pope Francis is available here.
 
Photos of the Primates’ Meeting in Rome are available here

Photo above: Courtesy of VATICAN MEDIA (Divisione Foto)

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