Archbishop of Canterbury's homily at the basilica of San Gregorio al Celio

Your Holiness,
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

It is a privilege to stand here, where my predecessors stood in 1989 and 1996, and to offer once again, as we did most recently in Westminster [and Assisi], the sacrifice of praise that we owe to the One Lord in whose name we are baptized; the One Lord who by his Spirit, brings to recognisability in each member of his sacramental Body, the image and abundant life of Christ his Son, through the temptations and struggles of our baptismal calling. 

St Gregory the Great had much to say about the peculiar temptations and struggles of those called to office in the Church of God. To be called to this service is to be called to several different kinds of suffering – the torment of compassion, as he puts it (Moralia 30.25.74), the daily awareness of urgent human needs, bodily and spiritual, and the torment of praise, flattery and status (ib. 26.34.62). This latter is a torment because those called to this ministry know so clearly their own inner weakness and instability. But that knowledge is a saving knowledge, which among other things helps us minister effectively to others in trouble; and it reminds us that we find stability, soliditas, only in the life of the Body of Christ, not in our own achievement (Homilies on Ezekiel 2.5.22) … Continue reading …

The high altar of the basilica of San Gregorio al Celio. 

Pope Benedict's homily at the basilica of San Gregorio al Celio

Refer back to last week's story HERE. This is the homily Pope Benedict preached at Vespers at San Gregorio al Celio on Saturday. 

Your Grace, 

Dear Brother Bishops and Priests, 

Dear Monks and Nuns of Camaldoli, 

Dear Brothers and Sisters, 

 It gives me great joy to be here today in this Basilica of San Gregorio al Celio for Solemn Vespers on the liturgical commemoration of the death of Saint Gregory the Great. With you, dear Brothers and Sisters of the Camaldolese family, I thank God for the thousand years that have passed since the foundation of the Sacred Hermitage of Camaldoli by Saint Romuald. I am delighted to be joined on this occasion by His Grace Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury. To you, my dear Brother in Christ, and to each one of you, dear monks and nuns, and to everyone present, I extend cordial greetings. 

We have listened to two passages from Saint Paul. The first, taken from the Second Letter to the Corinthians, is particularly appropriate … Continue reading …

The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Pope - more prayers for unity

Just a short walk from the Colloseum is The Celio, or Caelian Hill, one of the famous seven hills of Rome, on which is the monastery of San Gregorio al Celio. Originally this was the family villa suburbana of Pope Gregory I, who converted it into a monastery between 575 and 580. He was elected Pope in 590, and we know him as Gregory “the Great.”  

Saint Augustine of Canterbury was prior of this monastery before being chosen by Pope Gregory to lead the evangelistic mission to the Anglo-Saxons seven years later. It is no wonder that Anglicans and other English speaking Christians want to visit San Gregorio when in Rome! 

How appropriate that this coming Saturday afternoon, 10th March, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Pope Benedict XVI will celebrate Vespers together in the monastery church, and erect there a stone Celtic cross brought from Canterbury. Given that, in the words of Pope John Paull II, the journey to Christian unity is long and arduous, it is encouraging for both Anglicans and Roman Catholics to see our leaders set the example of prayer and friendship. In spite of the obstacles about which we speak so often, according to the AFP news report, Father Federico Lombardi, SJ, head of the Vatican Press Office said the prayers, as well as two joint performances by the choirs of Westminster Abbey and the Vatican later this month, were "a sign of moving together along the same path." 

The monastery of San Gregorio al Celio is part of the Camaldolesi Benedictine congregation, named after Camaldoli, in the northern Italian province of Arezzo, where between 1024 and 1025 St Romualdo founded a hermitage and monastery, bringing forth a new synthesis of monastic life in the tradition of the Rule of St Benedict combined with elements of the monastic tradition of eastern Christianity. 

Cherishing the ancient bond that for 1500 years has united San Gregorio al Celio and the Christianity of England, the monastery continues as a reference point for the dialogue between Roman Catholics and Anglicans. 

I visited the monastery of San Gregorio al Celio last year while doing some studies in Rome. Of interest to Australian Anglicans will be the fact that this is the community to which Peter Hughes (former Rector of St James King Street, Sydney) belongs. Below is a photograph of the two of us in the ancient monastic library.