31. New Stations of the Cross in St Peter's Basilica
by Graham Kings
Date added: 29/03/2026
Ecce Homo by Manuel Dürr, one of 14 new Stations of the Cross, St Peter's Basilica, Rome
The email from Manuel Dürr came as a surprise. I had not heard from him for two years:
I look back on an intense but beautiful year, in which I had the honour of working on the new stations of the cross for St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome.
He invited me to the celebratory opening service at 4.00pm the following week on Fri 20 February 2026 at 4pm, and to a university symposium on the project that morning.
Well, I immediately checked online and, sure enough, there was the announcement of the Vatican competition to paint the Via Crucis for St Peter’s and the declared winner. Over 1,000 entries from across the world, 14 shortlisted, and Manuel, a Swiss Reformed Christian, won it!
I cleared my diary, booked flights and thought, ‘I wonder if the Anglican Centre in Rome has a room spare for four nights?’ The Director, Bishop Anthony Ball, as ever, was more than kind and provided the delightfully singular ‘Carriage Room’, long and thin, near the quirky lift.
I love the Anglican Centre in Rome and had visited it several times before. The last being 10 years ago, when I was Mission Theologian in the Anglican Communion and gave a guest lecture at the Pontifical University Urbaniana, on 6 Oct 2016. This followed the 50th Anniversary Symposium earlier that week, during which Pope Francis and Archbishop Justin commissioned 19 pairs of Catholic and Anglican bishops for mission in their countries.
That week celebrated the 1966 visit of Michael Ramsey, the Archbishop of Canterbury, to Pope Paul VI, which led to the founding of the ARCIC theological project and the Anglican Centre in Rome.
The symposium on Manuel’s 14 paintings was organized by the University of Freiburg, where his brother, Oliver Dürr, is Professor of Public Theology, and the Pontifical University of St Thomas (the Angelicum), where his other brother, Simon, is Professor of New Testament.
As well as these three brothers, speakers in the stunningly beautiful Palazzo Collona included: Fr Thomas White (Rector of the Angelicum); Prof Ben Quash and Dr Chloe Reddaway (King’s College, London); and Prof Simon Oliver (Durham).
Manuel explained how he depicted light, and the delapidation of stone in his paintings, to chime in with the spectacular light and stonework of the pillars of Peter’s Basilica. In particular, I enjoyed the stones of the Ecce Homo, the shadows of the Roman soldiers’ spears, escorting him on the Via Crucis, and the curvature of the earth at the deposition and the burial. My one criticism is that I would have preferred a darker skin tone on Christ and the other Palestinians.
The Archpriest of the Basilica, Fr Mauro Gambetti, who organized the competition to celebrate its 400th anniversary, led the service as we processed around paintings near the altar. They will be on display every day in Lent, in perpetuity, and a service will be held every Friday in Lent at 4.00pm.
During my stay, I used the magnificent library of the Anglican Centre in Rome and had time with Bishop Anthony Ball. I also met up with Fr Stephen Wang, Rector of the Venerable English College (where English Catholic ordinands train), whom I knew when he was the Catholic Chaplain at the University of London, and with Prof Sandra Mazzolini, Dean of the Faculty of Missiology, at the Urbaniana.
Providentially, while wandering around the ancient Roman Forum, I bumped into a member of St Mary’s Church, Islington, London. I recognized Ruth Thomas (now Almgill) and she reminded me of our conversation 20 years previously, three days before her marriage:
You said, ‘Marriage is like corrugated cardboard: the wife and husband are the two boards and God is the corrugated strength in the middle.’
Perhaps that also could be a model for the goal of ecumenism? As we rejoice in the installation of Sarah Mullally on the Chair of St Augustine of Canterbury, let us continue to pray for her, for Pope Leo XIV, for Matthias Grebe, Ecumenical Advisor to the Church of England, for all who work at the Anglican Centre in Rome, in its unique vocation in the Anglican Communion.
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Published originally in Centro Easter 2026), the newslettter of the Anglican Centre in Rome. The article on Centro is here.
