THE BISHOP of Worcester has led an ecumenical week long pilgrimage to Rome.

The Bishop, the Right Reverend Dr John Inge was received by the Pope along with the Dean of Worcester, Peter Atkinson.

Bishop John said: “The ecumenical pilgrimage that the Archbishop of Birmingham and I are leading to Rome is the first of its kind being a joint Anglican and Roman Catholic pilgrimage.

"As part of it, it was a great privilege to meet the Pope this morning.

"I was able to tell him that he is a great inspiration to very many of us who are not Roman Catholics.

"He asked for the prayers of all of us on pilgrimage.”

The Dean of Worcester, Peter Atkinson, said: “I was delighted to meet Pope Francis this morning, who very kindly blessed a silver cross which I had bought for my three-day-old granddaughter Harriet.

"The Holy Father's words to me were: 'Please pray for me'.”

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Other activities for the 42 pilgrims from across the Worcester Diocese have included a visit to St Peter’s Square , before the group headed off to a meeting with cardinal Kurt Koch, head of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

Discipleship and lay training officer, Doug Chaplin, who is travelling with them, said: “Pilgrims went to St Peter’s, through airport style security, and into a heaving mass of humanity that made viewing the building – overwhelming in its size – an exercise in trying to avoid claustrophobia.

“Our bishops also pointed out the memorial to the son and grandchildren of James II, deposed in a parliamentary coup d’etat in 1688."