Anglican Archbishop Justin Welby celebrated an Anglican liturgy on the morning of 26 January, Friday, in the Catholic Basilica of St. Bartholomew, located on Tiber Island in Rome’s Tiber River.
At the beginning of the ceremony, the current archbishop of Canterbury thanked Pope Francis for allowing him to hold the service in this Catholic church.
The ceremony was included on the official calendar of activities held in Rome during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity and was published on the website of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity.
In a statement to ACI Prensa, Father Angelo Romano, rector of St. Bartholomew Basilica in Rome, explained that the prefect for the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, Cardinal Kurt Koch, requested for the Anglican liturgy to be held there.
“We simply welcomed this liturgy by the archbishop of Canterbury,” he said, pointing out that no Catholic faithful participated in the celebration and that “it’s not blasphemy” but rather a gesture of “fraternity with this church so close to ours.”
Welby is in Rome as part of the ecumenical week and also to participate in the summit titled “Growing Together” organized by the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission for Unity and Mission.
On 25 January, in Rome, the leader of the Anglican Church celebrated an ecumenical second vespers with Pope Francis for the solemnity of the Conversion of St. Paul at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.