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ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS
POPE JOHN PAUL II
TO THE MEMBERS OF THE CHAPTER
OF CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL

15 April 1997

 

Mr Dean,
Dear Friends,

It is my pleasure to greet the Chapter of Canterbury Cathedral on the occasion of your visit to Rome in connection with the fourteen hundredth anniversary of the mission given to Saint Augustine and his companions by my predecessor Pope Saint Gregory the Great.

During both the recent visit of Archbishop Carey and that of his predecessor Archbishop Runcie - visits which I recall with gratitude - we prayed together in the Church of Saint Gregory on the Caelian Hill, adjoining the site of the monastery where both he and Augustine were monks. At the altar of Saint Gregory our prayer was above all one of thanksgiving for the brotherhood in Christ which has been rediscovered through the ecumenical journey of recent years. It was also a prayer for conversion - "conversion to Christ and to one another in Christ", and for "progress towards that full visible unity which is God's gift and our calling" (Common Declaration, 5 December 1996).

It is my fervent prayer that the forthcoming celebrations in England will be an encouragement for Catholics and Anglicans to cooperate even more closely in preparing the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, which should find us "if not completely united, at least much closer to overcoming the divisions of the second millennium" (Tertio Millennio Adveniente, 34). May the Lord Jesus bless you and keep you in his love!".

 

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