Bishop Trevor Williams, former Church of Ireland Bishop of Limerick and Killaloe (recently retired) and Bishop Brendan Leahy, current Catholic Bishop of Limerick attended the 33rd ecumenical meeting of Bishops organised by the Focolare Movement in early November. The main meeting this year was in Castelgandolfo and followed by a weekend visit to Loppiano and a day in Assisi.
The theme of the meeting was “The Church: Mystery of Communion”. The 39 participants (Catholics, Orthodox, Syrian-Orthodox, Anglicans, Methodists, Lutherans and Heads of other ecclesial Communities) came from 29 countries.
Each day was very special. The morning began with a liturgy organised by one of the churches. Bishop Trevor preached at the Anglican service and Bishop Brendan presided at the Catholic Mass. Then, after breakfast, the first session was an input from one or more bishop on how their church understands the Eucharist. A rich sharing among us followed this. Bishop Brendan was asked to give an input on recent developments in the Catholic Church and he focussed on Pope Francis’s words and actions since becoming Pope.
On the second day, Maria Voce (Emmaus) came and spoke on the theme of the Eucharist in the experience of Chiara Lubich. It was well received with a short dialogue following. We could see that just as Chiara described her personal experience of the Eucharist, each church has its own history and experience of the Eucharist and it is important now to share that experience in view of the desire for unity that we all share.
That afternoon, we all gathered in San Nilo basilica in Grottaferrata to make the pact of mutual love together – to share each other’s joys and sufferings, including those of each other’s dioceses. It was a very moving moment, done in the context of the Orthodox Evening Prayer and in the presence of a very large number of people of the Focolare Movement, including Maria Voce and the new co-president of the Movement, Jésus Moran. After declaring the pact we offered each other the sign of peace and solemnly signed the text of the pact.
The following day we visited the Lutheran church and the Anglican Centre in Rome. There the director of the Anglican Centre, Archbishop Moxon spoke about the work of the Centre but also about a wonderful new ecumenical initiative to do with human trafficking. He explained that when the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby visited Pope Francis in June 2013, Archbishop Justin raised the challenge of human trafficking as an issue for the churches and for him personally. The Pope agreed, having initiated this challenge within the Roman Catholic Church some months before. After much negotiation a “Global Freedom Network” was established to help eradicate modern slavery from a faith base. Since then many other leaders have joined in this initiative. At the end of that visit we were given a guided tour of the recently discovered place where it is believed Paul was imprisoned in Rome. There’s still a well there that was possibly there in St. Paul’s time.
Apart from the official programme, there were many moments of sharing and conversation. Particularly touching were inputs from bishops living in places of acute suffering such as Syria. To hear their first hand testimony left us very moved. We assured them of unity but we were also left asking how we can do more to help this very painful situation.
On Thursday, while Bishop Brendan went to Rome to take part with the Lutheran bishop Christian Kruse in a television interview about our meeting, Bishop Trevor went to visit Chiara’s house where he admired the symmetry of Chiara’s office and the chapel with the Eucharist that she could see when she was drafting a talk or meditation text.
A particular highlight was the special audience on Friday, November 7th with Pope Francis. We were sitting in a U-shape around the room. The Pope entered very simply as we were singing “Ubi Caritas”. In his address to us, he praised the gathering as a “bright and attractive sign” of the common faith in Our Lord, Jesus Christ and encouraged us to continue “with courage”. “In fact,” said Pope Francis, “if we, as Christians, desire to respond in a meaningful way to the many problems and dramas of our time, then we need to speak and act as brothers, so that everyone can easily recognize that we belong to Christ, the One Lord.”
Pope Francis also renewed his appeal on behalf of all those suffering religious persecution and concluded by saying that all the challenges people face are a call to seek with renewed commitment, perseverance and patience, the ways that lead to unity – “that the world may believe” (Jn 17:21), and in order that we ourselves might be full of confidence and courage.
After his address, the Pope indicated to his secretary that he didn’t want us to have to line up to come to him, but rather that he would go around and greet each of us personally. He didn’t seem to be in any rush and several of the bishops spoke with him about their own personal concerns or hopes. The Pope promised to pray especially for two bishops from Syria who used to attend this meeting but who were kidnapped last year and there’s still no news of them. As he was leaving, we clapped but then he turned towards us and clapped us! Bishop Trevor managed to get some lovely photos as he was sitting up the front, quite close to the Pope.
With that, the Castelgandolfo part of the meeting was over. Next up was Loppiano. That included an amazing presentation of the Sophia University Institute with its combination of life and study as well as an interdisciplinary approach and then a wonderful celebration in the beautiful Theotokos Church. That afternoon Bishop Trevor visited the Gen Verde house where he met Sally McAllister from Belfast. Together they were plotting all kinds of possibilities for a visit of Gen Verde to Ireland! Our day concluded with a lovely time of sharing at the Priests School. The last day was spent in Assisi where one of the Franciscans, Fr. Egidio, who knows the Focolare very well, really made us feel at home and gave us the most wonderful tour of the basilica.
It would be difficult to put into words just how much we took away from the week together in this wonderful atmosphere of mutual love, sharing and wisdom among brother bishops of different churches. Bishop Brendan spoke of his surprising discovery of this family reality of bishops who have been journeying together for several years, building up a unity shaped by the spirituality of unity. One of Bishop Trevor’s impressions was that of not feeling the pain as we so often do when we attend each other’s Eucharistic celebrations but cannot receive communion. He attributed this to the bond of mutual love that was among us – a real sharing in the sacrament of Jesus among us.
Perhaps we can say that the week was a sharing in the ecumenical sacrament of Jesus among us.
Bishop Trevor Williams and Bishop Brendan Leahy
