Visit of the Summer School of the Centro Pro Unione

The Centro Pro Unione is a ministry of the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement, located in the Pamphilj Palace in the iconic Piazza Navona in Rome.  It has a long history as a place of meeting, study, research and ecumenical dialogue and formation, particularly significant during the Second Vatican Council when it served as a meeting place for the Observers from other Churches taking part in the Council.  The Centro has a substantial library specializing in the field of ecumenism and maintains updated documentation on the various theological dialogues, as well as disseminating the material for the yearly celebration of the “Week of Prayer for Christian Unity”.  

Each year the Centro organizes a Summer Course designed to introduce participants to the ecumenical and interreligious movements from a Catholic perspective. The course offers a historical and theological overview of the issues that divide Christians as well as the bonds that unite them, and explores relations with other religious traditions.  On 6 July the participants visited the Dicastery for promoting Christian Unity, where Bishop Brian Farrell explained the work and goals of the Dicastery and engaged in a QandA session concerning the worldwide ecumenical movement.