A SIXTH form student from a Birkenhead school was invited to meet Pope Francis at the Vatican.

Dylan Rumsby, Deputy Head Boy and Year 12 student at St. Anselm’s College, Birkenhead, attended an audience with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Thursday, May 25 as a student representative of the English Edmund Rice schools. 

The invitation arose as a result of the College’s involvement with the global Edmund Rice Education Beyond Borders movement and the attendance of Headmaster Simon Duggan and Chaplain Tom Murray at the third Global Congress in Dublin last month.

They received an invitation from the Scholas Occurrentes movement (Scholars Worldwide), founded by Pope Francis ten years ago, for a student representative of the English Schools to attend a Papal Audience.

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Papal Audiences are held on Wednesdays if the Pope is in Rome, giving pilgrims and visitors the chance to "see the Pope" and receive the Papal Blessing or Apostolic Blessing from the successor of the Apostle Peter during their visit.

Scholas Occurrentes seeks to encourage encounters, including inter-faith ones, between young people from around the world in order to empower them to bring about lasting change and create a more just world, drawing strength from multi-culturalism and diversity.

Dylan said the Audience was an "almost surreal and unforgettable experience" at which Pope Francis blessed a 100-year-old rosary for his recently bereaved grandmother.

Edmund Rice Education grew out of the global network founded by the Congregation of Christian Brothers which now numbers more than 300 schools in 25 countries, most of which were represented at the Dublin Congress. St. Anselm’s College is its Wirral member.