Fraternal visits and ecumenical presence

Bose, April 2008
Cardinal Roger Etchegaray

Also in these last few months many guests have visited us: in each one of them — as St Benedict exhorts us in his Rule (no. 53) — we have tried to recognize the Lord in person and to receive his mercy.


We wish first of all to mention the bishops of Italian dioceses: Gabriele Mana, our bishop of Biella, who again this year chose to conclude the Week of prayer for Christian unity with us; Massimo Giustetti, retired bishop of Biella; Arrigo Miglio, bishop of Ivrea; Agostino Gardin, secretary of the Congregation for religious; Paolo Magnani, retired bishop of Treviso; Antonio Buoncristiani, bishop of Siena; Gianni Ambrosio, bishop of Piacenza; Tommaso Valentinetti, bishop of Pescara. Among the foreign bishops who have visited us we recall cardinal Roger Etchegaray, who spent a few weeks of rest in Bose at the end of April; Adriaan van Luyn, bishop of Rotterdam, who, as every year, came for a week of spiritual retreat; Athenagoras Peckstadt, bishop of Sinope, Greek-Orthodox auxiliary of Brussels, who came to visit the ailing metropolitan Emilianos shortly before his departure from Bose to bring him a message of support from the ecumenical patriarch Bartholomeos; Martin Lind, Lutheran bishop of Linköping (Sweden), who accompanied a group of young people.

Among other visits that were occasions of ecumenical encounters, we are pleased to record that of Tamara Grdzelidze of the World Council of Churches in Geneva; of the rev. Maggie Guillebaud, who carries out presbiteral ministry in the Anglican cathedral of Salisbury; and of pastor Peter Halldorf, founder and director of the community of Biärka-Säby in Sweden, other members of which have also been our guests.