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{"id":1993,"date":"2010-09-27T05:41:40","date_gmt":"2010-09-27T09:41:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tmatt.net\/?p=1993"},"modified":"2010-09-27T05:41:40","modified_gmt":"2010-09-27T09:41:40","slug":"st-peter-in-westminster-abbey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2010\/09\/st-peter-in-westminster-abbey\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Peter in Westminster Abbey"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

During his long exile in Normandy, the Saxon prince who would become known as Edward the Confessor vowed that he would make a pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Peter once he returned to England.<\/p>\n

After his coronation as king, the pope released Edward from this vow \u2014 if he built a monastery dedicated to the first bishop of Rome. Thus, St. Peter\u2019s Abbey was rebuilt in Westminster. <\/p>\n

Pope Benedict XVI gently stressed this history in the first words of his address during his recent visit to Westminster Abbey<\/a>, where he prayed with the archbishop of Canterbury.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thank the Lord for this opportunity to join you \u2026 in this magnificent Abbey church dedicated to St. Peter, whose architecture and history speak so eloquently of our common heritage of faith,\u201d said Benedict. \u201cHere we cannot help but be reminded of how greatly the Christian faith shaped the unity and culture of Europe and the heart and spirit of the English people. Here too, we are forcibly reminded that what we share, in Christ, is greater than what continues to divide us. \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cI thank the Lord for allowing me, as the successor of St. Peter in the See of Rome, to make this pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Edward the Confessor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Benedict\u2019s historic visit to England\u2019s national shrine received little coverage, in part because his remarks there were intensely spiritual. Meanwhile, journalists had to notice that his Westminster Hall address<\/a> on the role of reason and faith in politics drew a secular flock that included, as an Associated Press report noted, \u201cformer Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher, John Major, Gordon Brown and Tony Blair, who recently converted to Catholicism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking in the hall in which the Catholic martyr Sir Thomas More was convicted of treason for his loyalty to Rome, Benedict warned that the modern world \u2014 take Europe \u2014 is increasingly hostile to those who try to act on their beliefs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are those who would advocate that the voice of religion be silenced, or at least relegated to the purely private sphere,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are those who argue that the public celebration of festivals such as Christmas should be discouraged, in the questionable belief that it might somehow offend those of other religions or none. And there are those who argue \u2014 paradoxically with the intention of eliminating discrimination \u2014 that Christians in public roles should be required at times to act against their conscience.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are worrying signs of a failure to appreciate not only the rights of believers to freedom of conscience and freedom of religion, but also the legitimate role of religion in the public square.\u201d<\/p>\n

The abbey visit created no sparks, in part because earlier that day the pope told Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams that there was no need to \u201cspeak of the difficulties that the ecumenical path has encountered and continues to encounter. Those difficulties are well known.\u201d Thus, there were no clear references to tensions about female priests, gay bishops in America\u2019s Episcopal Church and the Vatican\u2019s controversial decision \u2014 after many appeals by Anglican traditionalists \u2014 to make it easier for members of the Church of England to enter the Church of Rome.<\/p>\n

Instead, Benedict repeatedly stressed that unity must be found in scripture, creeds and moral doctrines that date back to the early church. These words, however, are controversial in an age in which the global Anglican Communion is divided over teachings as central as the resurrection of Jesus and claims that salvation is found through Christ, alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur commitment to Christian unity is born of nothing less than our faith in Christ, in this Christ, risen from the dead and seated at the right hand of the Father, who will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is the reality of Christ\u2019s person, his saving work and above all the historical fact of his resurrection, which is the content of \u2026 those creedal formulas. \u2026 The church\u2019s unity, in a word, can never be other than a unity in the apostolic faith<\/a>, in the faith entrusted to each new member of the Body of Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, Benedict stressed \u2014 yet again \u2014 that he was speaking and acting in \u201cfidelity to my ministry as the bishop of Rome and the successor of St. Peter, charged with a particular care for the unity of Christ\u2019s flock.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"