OUR COMMITMENT
Breathing with “two lungs”
But we are also committed to a work that Jesus Himself prayed for: “that all may be one.”
Achieving this unity of all Christians that Our Lord so desired, and yet is still so lacking in our world, takes many forms, but the one form that is foundational to our commitment is the unity between Eastern and Western Christianity — the reunification of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, what St. John Paul II meant when he said, “The Church must breathe with her two lungs!”
We pursue this crucial mission through our non-profit arm, the Urbi et Orbi Communications which began in 1993. In 2013, after years of work and reflection, we formed the Urbi et Orbi Foundation which sole purpose is to work on the reunification of the East and West — to heal the great Schism of 1054, A.D. Our western culture, sadly, has turned from the “path of life” indicated to us by the Hebrew prophets, and by all the saints down through the ages, and, above all, by Christ himself. Our Church seems hesitant, and sadly divided. And the greatest, oldest division is that between Catholics and Orthodox, West and East, Latin and Greek.
The Vision of Pope Emeritus Benedict and now Pope Francis
In 2012, we began lodging our pilgrims in the Domus Santa Marta, the residence of Pope Francis, for the Rome portion of some of our exclusive Signature Pilgrimages, and we have been invited to continue this practice — the only pilgrim group that is so privileged.
In answer to many requests, we expanded our pilgrimage schedule and began offering Custom Pilgrimages for private groups, as well as a yearly Foundation Pilgrimage, which benefits our non-profit Urbi et Orbi Foundation, dedicated to the reunification of Eastern and Western Christianity, and includes destinations in the East such as Moscow, Istanbul and Kiev, as well as Rome.
Finally, we instituted our Classic Pilgrimages, with family-friendly pricing, in order to make these one-of-a-kind experiences available to as many people as possible. For these pilgrimages, we offer lodging at the beautiful Villa Serenella. The Villa Serenella is a stately, typically Roman villa-turned-monastery surrounded by 13 acres of olive groves, pine trees, and walking paths. Situated outside of the city, the Villa Serenella is a perfect place to retreat to and relax after a day of touring the city! For more information about the Villa Serenella, including photographs of the buildings and property, click on the button below.
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Our Vision. Our Plans.
The vision of our Foundation may be summarized as: “Let us work together to defend our common beliefs.”
We launched the Urbi et Orbi Foundation to build an alliance with the Orthodox, and we are working to accomplish this by meeting with Catholic and Orthodox leaders in venues ranging from Washington to Rome to Kiev to Istanbul.
We have also raised funds for a variety of projects, like our “exchange program” which allows Catholic seminarians to visit the seat of the Orthodox Church in Moscow for a week, and Orthodox seminarians to visit Rome and the Vatican for a week. It’s a project that we believe will yield greater understanding and brotherhood between the Catholic and Orthodox clergy in the future.
And premier among our efforts are the “Foundation Pilgrimages” we lead for our Urbi et Orbi Foundation members, who have traveled with us to Istanbul to meet with the Ecumenical Patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church, Bartholomew I; to Budapest to meet with Cardinal Peter Erdo of Hungary; and to Moscow to meet with the “foreign minister” of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Hilarion.
It’s an important labor that we have undertaken, and a necessary one…and we invite you to join us! Visit UrbietOrbiFoundation.org to discover you can help us work to bring about the day when the Church will “breathe with her two lungs.”