Fr Martin Browne OSB
Official of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity
(Glenstal Abbey, Ireland)

On Sunday, 1 February 2026, the community of Collegio Sant’Anselmo hosted a visit by participants in the annual Study Visit for young priests and monks from the Oriental Orthodox Churches, organized by the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity. The Oriental Orthodox Churches—distinct from the Eastern Orthodox Churches—accept the first three Ecumenical Councils and separated from the other churches of the Roman Empire following the Council of Chalcedon in the fifth century. Happily, the Catholic Church has been in dialogue with these Ancient Churches of the East for more than 50 years, and successive popes have been able to make joint declarations on the divine and human nature of Christ with the heads of many Oriental Orthodox churches.

This year’s study visit was the sixth in the series and included 21 participants, who were drawn from all of the Oriental Orthodox Churches: the Coptic Orthodox Church, the Antiochian Syrian Orthodox Church, the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church and the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church. The study group’s visit to Sant’Anselmo has become a fixed part of the agenda each year, along with visits to various dicasteries of the Roman Curia and several ecclesiastical universities and colleges in Rome.

The Second Vatican Council saw in the monastic traditions of the East a bridge with those of the West: “There from the glorious times of the holy Fathers, monastic spirituality flourished which, then later flowed over into the Western world, and there provided the source from which Latin monastic life took its rise and has drawn fresh vigour ever since” (Unitatis redintegratio, §15). Successive popes since then have reminded monastics and other consecrated persons of the particular contribution that they can make to the search for Christian unity. It was in this spirit that Abbot Primate Jeremias Schröder, Prior Brendan Coffey, and Vice-Rector Laurentius Eschlböch welcomed our Oriental Orthodox visitors. In his greeting, Abbot Jeremias noted that our way of life relates quite easily to the practices and experiences of some of these very ancient churches. After some introductory presentations and an open conversation about the history and current reality of Sant’Anselmo, the Oriental Orthodox visitors joined the community for Solemn Vespers and supper.

In his 1996 apostolic exhortation on consecrated life, Pope John Paul II said, “I wish to encourage those Institutes which, either because they were founded for this purpose or because of a later calling, are dedicated to promoting Christian unity and therefore foster initiatives of study and concrete action” (Vita consecrata, §101). He added, “no Institute of Consecrated Life should feel itself dispensed from working for this cause.” Thirty years later, we might ask ourselves how our own communities are responding to this call.