Lancaster University chaplains visit Vatican City to meet Pope Leo XIV

An ecumenical delegation of Lancaster University Chaplains has met Pope Leo XIV in front of an audience at the Vatican in Rome. 

Canon Michael Docherty (Catholic), Reverence Matt Guilder (Church of England) and Lead Chaplain the Reverend John Rogers (Baptist) are the three chaplains given the opportunity to meet his Holiness in person. 

The trip was funded by the Chaplaincy charity and facilitated by the Catholic Church.

The chaplains also met the founders of the Hallow app, a Christian prayer app that has 30 million subscribers across the denominations, with many users being under the age of 25.

The Lancaster University Chaplaincy Centre, located just across from Bowland North, made Lancaster University the UK’s first to house a ‘multi-faith’ chaplaincy centre, and houses worship centres for the Catholic, Anglican and Free-Church Christian communities on campus.

The building also has rooms for Jewish and Buddhist university groups, a cafe and an alternative therapy treatment room. Furthermore, the Chaplaincy Service also provides Muslim prayer and community space Ash House.

The visit further established an opportunity to “consider the overall vision of the Chaplaincy” and seek insight from practitioners in this field, based at the English Seminary in Rome, the Venerable English College.

Reverend John Rogers said: “Meeting the Pope was a wonderful opportunity and privilege and something I never expected to happen when I started last year as Lead Chaplain at the university. The Pope seemed genuinely interested to hear about the work of our multi-faith chaplaincy, which was such an encouragement and endorsement of what we are trying to achieve in bringing different faith traditions together.” 

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In a statement from Canon Michael Docherty, he said: “Our time together in Rome helped us learn more about our shared Christian heritage, it gave us a space to reflect and discuss the progress we have made as a team over the last year, and to think about what we hope to see in the future.” 

Similarly, The Reverend John Rogers said: “We had some helpful conversations in terms of how we best support the engagement of the next generation of spiritual seekers, what trends have been noticed and what resources might be made available.” 

The Chaplaincy team has given its special thanks to Bishop Paul Swarbrick, the Catholic Trustee of the Chaplaincy Charity. 

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Featured image via Instagram @luchaplaincy