On Sunday 18 May at 10.00 a.m., the inauguration of Pope Leo XIV will take place in St. Peter’s Square in Rome. Among the many guests from churches, Christian world communions and other religions, a delegation from the International Old Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Union of Utrecht will also be present.
The Union of Utrecht will be represented by its president, the Archbishop of Utrecht, the Most Reverend Bernd Wallet, and its secretary, the Bishop of Switzerland, the Right Reverend Frank Bangerter. On Monday, Pope Leo XIV will receive the ecumenical guests in a private audience.
The Old Catholic delegation expresses the hope that new steps may be taken in the ecumenical movement under the pontificate of Pope Leo XIV. In particular, they remain committed to the official dialogue between Rome and the Union of Utrecht, following Pope Francis’ 2014 appeal to the Old Catholic bishops “to walk together, to pray together and to work together in a deeper spirit of conversion towards all that Christ intends for his Church.”
The choice of the name Leo, his emphasis on mission and synodality, and his pastoral presence inspire expectations of a pontificate in which the Bishop of Rome will advocate for justice for vulnerable people and our fragile climate. The Old Catholic representatives pray for the ministry entrusted to Pope Leo XIV, and for all those who, with him, feel called in these challenging times — as he himself said — “to build bridges through dialogue and encounter, uniting everyone to be one single people always in peace.”
Photo: By Edgar Beltrán, The Pillar – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=165144727