(Vatican Radio) An ecumenical milestone was marked in the Vatican on Monday as a traditional Anglican Choral Evensong was celebrated for the first time in St Peter’s Basilica.Cardinal Angelo Comastri, Archpriest of the Basilica, gave permission for the historic event during meetings with Archbishop David Moxon, Director of the Anglican Centre in Rome.The renowned choir of Merton College, Oxford came to sing music written at the time of the Reformation, as well as contemporary compositions and well-loved Anglican hymns.Listen to Philippa Hitchen’s report: This celebration marks another important step in the deepening of relationships between Anglicans and Catholics. It comes just two weeks after Pope Francis’ visit to the Anglican parish church of All Saints and just five months after the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury celebrated Vespers together at the Rome Basilica of St Gregory on the Caelian Hill.Anglican and Catholic bishops and clergy gathered t...
(Vatican Radio) An ecumenical milestone was marked in the Vatican on Monday as a traditional Anglican Choral Evensong was celebrated for the first time in St Peter’s Basilica.
Cardinal Angelo Comastri, Archpriest of the Basilica, gave permission for the historic event during meetings with Archbishop David Moxon, Director of the Anglican Centre in Rome.
The renowned choir of Merton College, Oxford came to sing music written at the time of the Reformation, as well as contemporary compositions and well-loved Anglican hymns.
Listen to Philippa Hitchen’s report:
This celebration marks another important step in the deepening of relationships between Anglicans and Catholics. It comes just two weeks after Pope Francis’ visit to the Anglican parish church of All Saints and just five months after the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury celebrated Vespers together at the Rome Basilica of St Gregory on the Caelian Hill.
Anglican and Catholic bishops and clergy gathered together at the altar below Bernini’s great bronze sculpture holding the Chair of St Peter. Archbishop David Moxon presided at the liturgy, celebrated with ancient words and music recalling the days of the English Renaissance.
Music by the great English composer William Byrd filled the basilica, as well as some more contemporary works, while the words of the liturgy and readings were those of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.
Legacy of St Gregory the Great
Significantly the celebration took place the day after the Church traditionally marked the feast of St Gregory the Great. It was he who sent Augustine, prior of a Benedictine monastery in Rome, to evangelise the English in the year 597. And it was he whom English Catholic Archbishop Arthur Roche, Secretary of the Vatican’s congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, recalled in his sermon, highlighting Pope Gregory’s humility, courage and missionary spirit.
“I think Gregory was a very courageous man in his own time and I think that speaks to us here still today, that despite the difficulties, to be outgoing, just as Pope Francis and Archbishop Welby have been saying, to proclaim the Gospel with joy..”
The celebration ended with a procession to the tomb of St Gregory to pray for the whole Christian church and for the spirit of wisdom on its leaders – a fitting way of marking the fourth anniversary of Pope Francis’ election to the Chair of St Peter. It was, according to Bishop David Hamid of the Anglican diocese in Europe, a very moving and significant ecumenical moment:
“This is building on what popes and archbishops have been saying for some time…the daily prayer of the Church is something which unites us, it goes back to our common Benedictine roots and we in the English Church owe much to the Benedictine mission sent by Pope Gregory…we are very grateful for the closeness which is becoming evident in our two traditions which is enabling this kind of common prayer…..”
Archbishop Julian Porteous. / Credit: Archdiocese of HobartCNA Newsroom, May 14, 2024 / 15:22 pm (CNA).An Australian archbishop has been criticized for his pastoral letter addressing human dignity and legislative challenges to religious and parental freedoms.Archbishop Julian Porteous of Hobart released the four-page document titled "We Are Salt to the Earth" on May 2. The pastoral letter was sent to Catholic parishes and schools in the Tasmanian archdiocese.In the letter, Porteous reiterated the Church's teaching on the complementarity of the sexes, the sanctity of marriage, and the protection of life from conception to natural death."Believing in God as creator we see our identity as male and female as a gift. Thus, we see efforts to disconnect gender from biological sex as denying the reality of who we are and the precious identity we have as a man or a woman," Porteous wrote."God created male and female as sexually complementary. This means that, sexually speaking, we have ...
Bishop Robert Pipta of the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Parma, Ohio, celebrates a Divine Liturgy on Saturday, May 11, 2024, at the Byzantine chapel at Wyoming Catholic College, on the occasion of the installation and blessing of the new shrine. / Credit: Julian Kwasniewski/Wyoming Catholic CollegeAnn Arbor, Michigan, May 14, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).Bishop Robert Pipta of the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Parma, Ohio, dedicated a shrine and an icon on Saturday, May 11, at Wyoming Catholic College directed to prayer specifically for persecuted Christians. In a response to CNA, Pipta wrote of the event: "To be reminded that the Theotokos continues her motherly care for persecuted Christians throughout the world is of great value to the Catholic faithful in our communities." Pipta celebrated a Divine Liturgy in the Byzantine chapel at the college and was accompanied by its chaplain, Father David Anderson; Father Benedict Kiely; students; and faculty. Bishop Robert Pipta bl...
Pope Francis meets with members of the Syro-Malabar Church on May 13, 2024, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican MediaWashington, D.C. Newsroom, May 13, 2024 / 16:53 pm (CNA).In a meeting with Major Archbishop Raphael Thattil and members of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church at the Vatican on Monday, Pope Francis urged unity and obedience amid a long-simmering liturgical conflict that continues to rock the Eastern church.As some fear an imminent schism in the ancient Eastern-rite church, the pope stressed the importance of unity, saying: "Apart from Peter, apart from the major archbishop, there is no Church." He urged the faithful present at the Vatican's Consistory Hall to "press forward" in obedience to the Church, saying: "You are obedient, and where obedience is present, there is the Church. Where there is disobedience, there is schism."What is going on in the Syro-Malabar Church?The Syro-Malabar Church is an Eastern Catholic rite in full communion with the Roman Cath...