Archbishop delivers ‘Holy Grail’ to Pope

1:58pm Tuesday 29th January 2008

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IT could have been the moment the world was waiting for - the Holy Grail being hand-delivered to the Pope.

But that is exactly what the Archbishop of York did when he made his historic visit to Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican.

Dr John Sentamu took the Pontiff some quintessentially Yorkshire gifts - including a bottle of Holy Grail beer and Black Sheep Ale from the Black Sheep Brewery.

The Archbishop also presented the Pope with an illustrated history of York Minster, and a cut-glass beer tankard from the Minster. He said the gifts were chosen to reflect the Pope's appreciation of Bavarian beer.

Dr Sentamu returned to England yesterday, after five days in Rome celebrating the week of Prayer for Christian unity.

He spent time praying, preaching and presiding with Christian communities in Rome from Anglican, Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Episcopal and Methodist backgrounds, and also met with Pope Benedict XVI; Cardinal Walter Kasper, the Vatican's head of inter-church relations; Archbishop Pius Ncube, the former Archbishop of Bulawayo in Zimbabwe; and British Ambassadors to the Vatican and Italy.

Dr Sentamu also witnessed the work of two of Rome's main centres for services to the poor. The Community of San Egidio has been working with the poor of the city for over two decades and is now an international organisation. Dr Sentamu visited the community's homeless shelter and school before preaching at the community's evening service in the Church of San Batolomeo.

The Archbishop was also able to pray at the shrine for the murdered Anglican Archbishop of Uganda, Janini Luwuum, who is commemorated at the church, and also visited St Paul's refugee centre, operated by the Episcopal Church of the United States and Rome's only day centre for refugees and asylum seekers. He spent time meeting and speaking with users of the centre and being shown the facilities which include Italian language classes for both adults and children.

The Archbishop also met the Most Reverend Pius Ncube, the former Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo, who has been one of Zimbabwe's leading critics of the Zimbabwean regime.

Archbishop Pius spoke of the continued suffering of the Zimbabwean people under Robert Mugabe and expressed his delight in Dr Sentamu's support of ordinary Zimbabweans.

A spokesman for Dr Sentamu said: "The Archbishop was well received in Rome and valued the opportunity to be able to pray with Christians from many different denominations during this week of unity.

"He particularly valued his meetings with the Pope Benedict and Cardinal Kasper in strengthening the bonds of relationship between churches."