BY Ian Dunn | September 17 | 
0 COMMENTS 
print
Pope calls on Anglicans and Catholics to work together
Pope Benedict and Archbishop Rowan Williams have spoken together at Lambeth Palace and said their churches must be allies in the battle against secularism.
Pope Benedict has spoken of the ‘warm friendship’ between the Anglican and Catholic churches and said both traditions have to work together to combat enemies of faith.
The Holy Father was speaking after being welcomed to Lambeth Palace, the historic home of Anglicism, by Archbishop Rowan Williams.
Pope Benedict said he did not intend to speak of the ‘difficulties’ the ecumenical path between the two churches had encounters.
“Rather, I wish to join you in giving thanks for the deep friendship that has grown between us and for the remarkable progress that has been made in so many areas of dialogue during the forty years that have elapsed since the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission began its work,” he said. “Let us entrust the fruits of that work to the Lord of the harvest, confident that he will bless our friendship with further significant growth.”
This friendship was needed, said the Pope, as both churches now existed in a society that was increasingly hostile to religion.
“The surrounding culture is growing ever more distant from its Christian roots, despite a deep and widespread hunger for spiritual nourishment,” he said. “We Christians must never hesitate to proclaim our faith in the uniqueness of the salvation won for us by Christ, and to explore together a deeper understanding of the means he has placed at our disposal for attaining that salvation.”
In welcoming the Pope Archbishop Williams the Papal visit was ‘a special time of grace and of growth in our shared calling’, and express the hope that the occasion will be recognised as having ‘significance both to the Church of Christ and to British society’.
“Our fervent prayer is that this visit will give us fresh energy and vision for working together,” he said. “Today, this involves a readiness to respond to the various trends in our cultural environment that seek to present Christian faith as both an obstacle to human freedom and a scandal to human intellect. We need to be clear that the Gospel of the new creation in Jesus Christ is the door through which we enter into true liberty and true understanding.”
Catholic and Anglican bishops from around the UK were present for the speeches.
Pope Benedict XVI had earlier told religious leaders of other faiths at St Mary’s, Twickenham, that successful interfaith dialogue requires freedom of religion and freedom of conscience to be respected across the world.
“Ever since the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church has placed special emphasis on the importance of dialogue and cooperation with the followers of other religions. In order to be fruitful, this requires reciprocity on the part of all partners in dialogue and the followers of other religions,” he said. “I am thinking in particular of situations in some parts of the world, where cooperation and dialogue between religions calls for mutual respect, the freedom to practise one’s religion and to engage in acts of public worship, and the freedom to follow one’s conscience without suffering ostracism or persecution, even after conversion from one religion to another.”
He made the comments in an address to the chief rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sacks, Dr Khaled Azzam, chief executive of the Prince’s School for Traditional Arts, and Archbishop Patrick Kelly of Liverpool, head of the bishops’ conference department for interreligious dialogue, among other religious leaders and ‘people of faith’. They were gathered at the Waldegrave Drawing Room at St Mary’s, Twickenham.
Pope Benedict’s address to the Archbishop of Canterbury in full:
Archbishop of Canterbury’s Speech to Pope Benedict in full:
RSS Feeds