Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell has paid tribute to Pope Francis, calling him a leader who "touched the hearts of the whole world". Reflecting on their meeting Cottrell said the Pope's legacy is one of unity, humility, and peace. Report by Etemadil. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00It's a sad day as we mourn the loss of Pope Francis, who was a Christian leader who touched
00:06the hearts of the whole world, and Christians of all denominations, including me, as a member
00:13of the Church of England. When I sat and spoke with him a couple of years ago, and when I went
00:18to see him, to be honest, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I thought, maybe I'll go in,
00:22I'll meet the Pope, we'll shake hands, exchange pleasantries, and that'll be the end of it.
00:27After all, you know, I'm an Anglican Archbishop, not a Roman Catholic. So we went to see him,
00:32we did exchange pleasantries, we did shake hands. I was thinking, well, maybe that's it,
00:36maybe the visit's over, when he said, oh, well, shall we go and sit down? And we went to an
00:41adjacent parlour, we sat down, and we talked for about half an hour. And that's when he
00:46said to me, we must work together, we must walk together, we must pray together, this
00:51great ecumenical vision for the whole Church. But he also said things like, you know, when
00:57it comes to unity, we, the Church, need to get on with it and let the bishops and the
01:02archbishops and the popes and the theologians catch up, that unity is something we already
01:08have in Jesus Christ. We just need to make it visible in the life of the Church today.
01:13Now, that isn't easy, but it's a wonderful vision. And probably the thing that had the biggest
01:19impact on me, something which I'm still working out in my ministry today, is right at the end
01:24of our visit, he said, let us pray. And when we prayed together, of course, the prayer that
01:33we said was the Lord's Prayer. Now, for the first time, I mean, I've said the Lord's Prayer
01:39thousands of times, I say it every day. But sitting there, saying the Lord's Prayer with
01:45Pope Francis, the opening word of the Lord's Prayer suddenly struck me. Our, our Father,
01:53our God. And what that means, therefore, is that everybody else who says this prayer is
02:00my sister and my brother, whether I like it or not. These are the people that God has
02:06made into his Church. And just saying the Lord's Prayer with Pope Francis changed me, changed
02:16and renewed and refreshed my understanding of what it is to be the Church, that we belong
02:21to each other across these denominational barriers. And then I think, what a message for the world.
02:27We live in a world that's so divided, you know, where the Church itself has made many mistakes
02:33and failings. We need to be a humble Church, we need to be a penitent Church, but we also
02:40need to be a Church where we recognise our common humanity and our belonging one to another.
02:46That's what Pope Francis reawakened in me, and I believe that will be his great legacy, both
02:52to the Church, but also to the world.