by Catherine Pepinster, Religion Media Centre
Once banished by Protestant churches as part of the sweeping changes wrought by the Reformation 500 years ago, indulgences — a Roman Catholic means of ensuring the remission of sins — are now making a comeback in English cathedrals.
And this time, instead of being a sign of division between Roman Catholics and Protestants, their revival in Church of England cathedrals is a symbol of ecumenical friendship.
On Monday, Canterbury Cathedral, mother church of Anglicanism, is to host a Roman Catholic mass celebrated by the papal nuncio, the Pope’s ambassador to the UK.
The mass marks the feast of the translation of Thomas Becket, commemorating the move of the remains of Becket — the Archbishop of Canterbury murdered in the cathedral by knights acting on behalf of King Henry II in 1170 — from the crypt to a new shrine.
Although the feast has been kept in recent times, the shrine was destroyed in 1538 on the orders of Henry VIII and almost all the bodily remains were lost.
However, on Monday, when the nuncio, Archbishop Miguel Maury Buendia, celebrates the mass, organised by the nearby Roman Catholic parish of St Thomas of Canterbury, some of Becket’s bones will be brought from the Catholic church to be displayed during the mass.