Acta Benedicti Pp. XVI 633

IV

Iter Apostolicum Summi Pontificis in Regnum Unitum: Londinii, apud Lambeth

Palace, Beatissimus Pater Archiepiscopum Cantuariensem gratiae causa invisit.*

Your Grace,

It is a pleasure for me to be able to return the courtesy of the visits you

have made to me in Rome by a fraternal visit to you here in your official

residence. I thank you for your invitation and for the hospitality that you

have so generously provided. I greet too the Anglican Bishops gathered here

from different parts of the United Kingdom, my brother Bishops from the

Catholic Dioceses of England, Wales and Scotland, and the ecumenical

advisers who are present.

You have spoken, Your Grace, of the historic meeting that took place,

almost thirty years ago, between two of our predecessors - Pope John Paul

the Second and Archbishop Robert Runcie - in Canterbury Cathedral.

There, in the very place where Saint Thomas of Canterbury bore witness

to Christ by the shedding of his blood, they prayed together for the gift of

unity among the followers of Christ. We continue today to pray for that gift,

knowing that the unity Christ willed for his disciples will only come about in

answer to prayer, through the action of the Holy Spirit, who ceaselessly

renews the Church and guides her into the fullness of truth.

It is not my intention today to speak of the difficulties that the ecumen-

ical path has encountered and continues to encounter. Those difficulties are

well known to everyone here. Rather, I wish to join you in giving thanks for

the deep friendship that has grown between us and for the remarkable pro-

gress that has been made in so many areas of dialogue during the forty years

that have elapsed since the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commis-

sion began its work. Let us entrust the fruits of that work to the Lord of the

harvest, confident that he will bless our friendship with further significant

growth.

The context in which dialogue takes place between the Anglican Commu-

nion and the Catholic Church has evolved in dramatic ways since the private

meeting between Pope John XXIII and Archbishop Geoffrey Fisher in 1960.

On the one hand, the surrounding culture is growing ever more distant from

* Die 17 Septembris 2010.