Canterbury in Rome Archbishop Michael Ramsey's visit to Paul VI

By 1966 relations between the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church had greatly improved since the days of the Reformation.

1960

There had only been one visit of a post-Reformation Archbishop of Canterbury to a Pope before this: the meeting between Geoffrey Fisher and Pope John XXIII in 1960.

This was so low-key that The Times' correspondent in Rome said, "The visit was treated like a guilty secret." So uncomfortable was the Vatican with the meeting that their first criterion for agreeing to it was that there would be no official photographs. The only picture of the event is of Archbishop Fisher arriving at the airport.

"I did not have to create an atmosphere of friendship. I walked straight into it. We talked like two good Christian gentlemen about anything that came into our minds." Archbishop Geoffrey Fisher

When the Pope spoke of the return of the separated brethren to the Mother Church, Archbishop Fisher said, "Your Holiness, not return! None of us can go backwards. We are now running on parallel courses; we are looking forward until, in God's time, our two courses approximate and meet." After a moment's pause the Pope said, "You are right."

1966

The visit of Michael Ramsey in 1966 was a profoundly different affair. For a start he was an official guest of the Pope, staying at the Venerable English College, the seminary training priests for England and Wales. This was also a public event, much heralded in the press.

22 March

The first item of business was the dedication of the new Anglican Centre, which would be opened in October.

"The Anglican Communion cherishes the Holy Sciptures and the Catholic Creeds. In history, it values the lessons of the Reformation of the sixteenth century, and it values no less the continuity which it claims with the ancient Church. In spirituality, it learns from saints and teachers of its own, while it also tries to learn from saints and teachers of every period in the West and in the East. In theology, it learns from the Scriptures, the ancient fathers and the liturgy, while it strives to use whatever light is shed by modern knowledge upon the understanding of man and the world. The Anglican student is often a debtor to writers within the Roman Catholic Church. This Centre is an attempt to repay that debt by making available the resources of Anglican learning to any who will come and enjoy them." Archbishop Michael Ramsey, March 22, 1966

This Centre, which had been planned since 1963, was to be a permanent, visible, presence of the Anglican Communion in Rome and the base for the Archbishop of Canterbury's personal representative to the Holy See.

March 23

In the same year that Michaelangelo began painting the Sistine Chapel, Henry VIII split from Rome. On March 23, 1966 the Archbishop of Canterbury was received in the Sistine Chapel by the Bishop of Rome.

"You have rebuilt a bridge which, for centuries, has lain fallen between the Church of Rome and the Church of Canterbury. You cross over with spontaneous initiative and confidence. May God bless this courage and this piety of yours." Pope Paul VI
"Your Holiness, dear brother in Christ, I have come with the longing in my heart, which I know to be in your heart also: that we may help in the fulfilment of the prayer of our Divine Lord, that all his disciples may come to unity, in the truth." Archbishop Michael Ramsey

March 24

The next day, Pope and Archbishop of Canterbury prayed at the Basilica of St Paul's outside the Walls, the burial-place of St Paul, and signed the Common Declaration.

THE COMMON DECLARATION BY POPE PAUL VI AND THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY DR MICHAEL RAMSEY

Rome, Saint Paul Outside the Walls, 24 March 1966

In this city of Rome, from which Saint Augustine was sent by Saint Gregory to England and there founded the cathedral see of Canterbury, towards which the eyes of all Anglicans now turn as the centre of their Christian Communion, His Holiness Pope Paul VI and His Grace Michael Ramsey, Archbishop of Canterbury, representing the Anglican Communion, have met to exchange fraternal greetings.

At the conclusion of their meeting they give thanks to Almighty God Who by the action of the Holy Spirit has in these latter years created a new atmosphere of Christian fellowship between the Roman Catholic Church and the Churches of the Anglican Communion.

This encounter of the 23 March 1966 marks a new stage in the development of fraternal relations, based upon Christian charity, and of sincere efforts to remove the causes of conflict and to re-establish unity.

In willing obedience to the command of Christ who bade His disciples love one another, they declare that, with His help, they wish to leave in the hands of the God of mercy all that in the past has been opposed to this precept of charity, and that they make their own the mind of the Apostle which he expressed in these words: ‘Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus’ (Phil 3:13-14).

They affirm their desire that all those Christians who belong to these two Communions may be animated by these same sentiments of respect, esteem and fraternal love, and in order to help these develop to the full, they intend to inaugurate between the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion a serious dialogue which, founded on the Gospels and on the ancient common traditions, may lead to that unity in truth, for which Christ prayed.

The dialogue should include not only theological matters such as Scripture, Tradition and Liturgy, but also matters of practical difficulty felt on either side. His Holiness the Pope and His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury are, indeed, aware that serious obstacles stand in the way of a restoration of complete communion of faith and sacramental life; nevertheless, they are of one mind in their determination to promote responsible contacts between their Communions in all those spheres of Church life where collaboration is likely to lead to a greater understanding and a deeper charity, and to strive in common to find solutions for all the great problems that face those who believe in Christ in the world of today.

Through such collaboration, by the Grace of God the Father and in the light of the Holy Spirit, may the prayer of Our Lord Jesus Christ for unity among His disciples be brought nearer to fulfilment, and with progress towards unity may there be a strengthening of peace in the world, the peace that only He can grant Who give ‘the peace that passeth all understanding’, together with the blessing of Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, that it may abide with all men for ever.

+Michael Cantuarensis
Paulus PP. VI

It was at the end of the event, as they said good-bye, that Pope Paul VI did something so amazing that it brought the Archbishop of Canterbury to tears. He removed his episcopal ring - the ring given to him by the people of Milan when he was their Archbishop - and put it on the finger of Michael Ramsey.

This ring was worn by Michael Ramsey to the end of his life and is worn, today, by the Archbishop of Canterbury whenever he visits Rome.

For fifty years.

Created By
Marcus Walker
Appreciate

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