St Gregory relic returns to Rome at start of Christian
Unity week
(Vatican Radio) A precious
treasure from the Rome Church of San Gregorio al Celio was brought back home on
Monday after spending a week on loan to Canterbury Cathedral for a meeting of
worldwide Anglican leaders there.
The head of a crozier, or
pastoral staff, associated with St Gregory the Great, has been on display in
the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral, alongside a rare 6th century book of the
Gospels given by Pope Gregory to St Augustine as he set off on his mission to
take the Christian faith to England. The manuscript is the oldest surviving
Latin illustrated Gospel book and one of the most ancient European books in
existence.
Appropriately, the relic of
St Augustine was returned to Rome at the start of the annual week of prayer for
Christian Unity. Accompanying it on its journey to England was Australian
missionary Fr Robert McCulloch, who currently serves as Procurator General of
the Society of St Columban. He talked to Philippa Hitchen about the
significance of the Roman relic on display alongside the precious Augustine
Gospel…
Fr Robert says it's important
to note the relic associated with St Gregory is returning from Canterbury to
Rome on the day that we mark the beginning of the week of prayer for Christian
unity. Through this object, he says, we can "recapture the missionary
link" in common faith, history and heritage between Catholics and
Anglicans.
Fr Robert notes that this
year also marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Anglican
Centre in Rome, following the first official meeting of an Archbishop of
Canterbury, Michael Ramsey, to Pope Paul VI. He talks about the important
ministry over the past 50 years of linking the Roman Catholic Church with the
Anglican Church, of "maintaining a fraternal, ecumenical and deeply
spiritual presence" of the Anglican Church in Rome.
The Centre, he says, also
organises courses which allow participants to experience Rome and the Catholic
Church in a deeper way. He gives the example of the Anglican bishop of
Hyderabad in Pakistan who attended one such course last auturmn and told Fr
Robert he was able to see Rome "not just with his eyes, but with his
heart".
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