Christian unity and good causes: small steps, big results

As ambassador to the Holy See, it is quite rare that I get out of Rome for professional purposes. Most of the key contacts and institutions with which the embassy works are, naturally, based in Rome. Although I plug into the global Holy See network, I do that through the hub. So I have had a few quite unusual days, albeit at the service of some key embassy objectives.

Last week I was in Viterbo, at the invitation of the city authorities, to attend a conference on the beatified Passionist priest the Blessed Dominic Barberi. The Archbishop of Birmingham, Msgr Bernard Longley, was also there with a large group from his archdiocese. Why? Because Barberi has two particular claims to fame as far as England is concerned. As a young man, he felt urged to travel to England to help the revival of Catholicism. He finally realised this dream in the late 1830s, and was instrumental in re-establishing the Catholic presence in the Midlands and North-West – he is buried today in St Helens near Liverpool. Overcoming initial local hostility, he is now seen as an apostle of ecumenical dialogue between Catholicism and Anglicanism. Secondly, he was the priest who received John Henry Newman – later a Cardinal, and beatified by Pope Benedict at Cofton Park in Birmingham in 2010 – into the Catholic Church. The conference was a great success, and the hospitality of Viterbo munificent.

I was also in England last week, in Canterbury, to attend the inaugural cricket match between the brand new St. Peter’s Cricket Club made up of Sri Lankan and Indian seminarians and captained by Father Tony Currer from Durham and the Vatican, and The Archbishop of Canterbury’s XI. It was a quintessential late summer’s evening. Cricket on the lovely St Lawrence ground. Lengthening shadows. An appreciative crowd. But with a twist. The match and subsequent dinner were in aid of the Global Freedom Network which is doing so much to bring faith leaders together to tackle human trafficking around the world. And it was a magnificent ecumenical occasion, with the Archbishop of Canterbury joined by Archbishop David Moxon from the Anglican centre in Rome, as well as the Bishop of Dover, in friendly rivalry with the Apostolic Nuncio to London, and Archbishop Peter Smith and Bishop Pat Lynch from the Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark. I did say friendly. Of course! Though I was mightily relieved that the local team won, in the final over….

The point is that unity, dialogue, integration, engagement, do not just take place on a higher plane. In fact, top level talks or speeches are nothing without the hard work of walking together, doing together and playing together. Work against human trafficking was given a huge boost by the cricket day at Canterbury, in terms both of money raised and publicity achieved. Understanding between the UK and Italy, and of the history of Anglican-Catholic relations, was certainly advanced a few incremental steps by the Dominic Barberi conference. World peace has not broken out. But the world is, very slightly, a better and more united place thanks to events taking place in Viterbo and Canterbury last week.