Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams yesterday made the first
visit of a leader of the Church of England to the Catholic shrine at
Lourdes.
Dr Williams said the story of Bernadette Soubirous, the 19th century French peasant girl whose visions of Mary led to the founding of the shrine, provided hope for those who were attempting to spread the Christian faith, The Guardian reports.
He added that the experience of coming to a holy place "soaked in the hopes and prayers of millions" could help people grasp the "deep and mysterious" joy of God.
Dr Williams' pilgrimage to the holy site coincides with the 150th anniversary of St Bernadette's visions and follows Pope Benedict's visit to the shrine earlier this month.
"Bernardette's neighbours and teachers and parish clergy knew all they thought they needed to know about the Mother of God - and they needed to be surprised by this inarticulate, powerless, marginal teenager who had leapt up in the joy of recognition to meet Mary as her mother, her sister, bearer of her Lord and Redeemer," Archbishop Williams said during a sermon at the international mass at Lourdes celebrated by
Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Vatican's pontifical council
for the promotion of Christian unity.
.
He added: "Our prayer here must be that, renewed and surprised in this holy place, we may be given the overshadowing strength of the Spirit to carry Jesus wherever we go, in the hope that joy will leap from heart to heart in all our human encounters. And that we may also be given courage to look and listen for that joy in our own depths when the clarity of the good news seems far away and the sky is cloudy."
The Daily Mail says that Dr Williams made his visit, at the personal invitation of the Catholic Bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes, Jacques Perrier, who indicated that Anglican and Catholic leaders remain committed to closer relations in spite of differences over the ordination of women and sexually-active gay men as priests and bishops.
Father Graeme Rowlands, a north London Anglican vicar and the organiser of the pilgrimage, said Dr Williams was making the visit of his own volition.
"It was his decision to go on pilgrimage to Lourdes and nobody else's," said Father Rowlands.
"It was his devotion to Our Lady in the end really that persuaded him to go. He has a very genuine devotion to Our Lady."
SOURCE
Archbishop of Canterbury goes to Lourdes (Guardian, 25/9/08)
Archbishop Rowan Williams makes historic visit to Catholic shrine (Daily Mail,17/9/08)
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