Archbishop Thabo Makgoba joins Anglican Communion delegation to attend the inauguration of Pope Leo XIV

 From Good Hope, monthly newsletter of the Diocese of Cape Town:

Archbishop Thabo Makgoba joined an Anglican Communion delegation in Rome earlier this month to attend the inauguration of Pope Leo XIV’s papal ministry and to hear his first address to other religious leaders.

At an Inaugural Mass on Sunday May 18, ecumenical leaders were seated in front of St Peter’s Basilica, where presidents, prime ministers and members of royal families were also present.

“The service—the liturgy and the music—was glorious,” the Archbishop wrote afterwards on his blog, and “the Pope's message of peace struck a real chord in me.

“Afterwards we had lunch at the British Embassy to the Holy See, together with English cardinals, MPs and members of the Royal family. We were also joined by Bishop Anthony Poggo, Secretary General of the Anglican Communion. After lunch, Lungi and I joined the Royal family and team and went to Pope Francis’s grave where I laid a white rose in his memory.”

In his homily at the Mass, Pope Leo deplored the state of the world, telling worshippers: “In this our time, we still see too much discord, too many wounds caused by hatred, violence, prejudice, the fear of difference, and an economic paradigm that exploits the Earth’s resources and marginalises the poorest.”

Declaring his intentions for his Papacy, he continued: “For our part, we want to be a small leaven of unity, communion and fraternity within the world. We want to say to the world, with humility and joy: Look to Christ! Come closer to him! Welcome his word that enlightens and consoles! Listen to his offer of love and become his one family: in the one Christ, we are one.”

He appealed for a united Church, to be “a sign of unity and communion, which becomes a leaven for a reconciled world”.

Responding on his blog, Archbishop Thabo wrote: “Today was the first of many possible gestures of uniting us as humanity and then the household of Faith, especially Christians, in responding to what God is up to in God’s world."

On Monday May 19, the Archbishop joined Archbishop Leonard Dawea of Melanesia, Archbishop Stephen Cottrell of York, Archbishop John McDowell of Armagh and Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe of The Episcopal Church in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace for an audience which the Pope held with representatives of other faiths and Christian denominations.

Addressing the audience on inter-church unity, Pope Leo told his guests: “As Bishop of Rome, I consider one of my priorities to be that of seeking the re-establishment of full and visible communion among all those who profess the same faith in God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.”

Appealing for peace and justice, he added: “In a world wounded by violence and conflict, each of the communities represented here brings its own contribution of wisdom, compassion and commitment to the good of humanity and the preservation of our common home.

“I am convinced that if we are in agreement, and free from ideological and political conditioning, we can be effective in saying ‘no’ to war and ‘yes’ to peace, ‘no’ to the arms race and ‘yes’ to disarmament, ‘no’ to an economy that impoverishes peoples and the Earth and ‘yes’ to integral development.”

The audience included Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem, and Catholicos Awa III, patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, as well as Methodist and Lutheran leaders. Representatives of the Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh and Jain communities also attended.