​CHICAGO (ELCA) – The Rev. Wolfgang D. Herz-Lane, bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s (ELCA) Delaware-Maryland Synod based in Baltimore, traveled with an interfaith delegation to the Vatican for a March 2 meeting with Pope Francis. The group met the pope following his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square and received a blessing for their ecumenical work in the aftermath of the April 2015 death of Freddie Gray.

“The civil unrest in Baltimore in April 2015 brought out the best in the faith community. At one point, more than 100 pastors and Muslim imams walked arm in arm down the street in order to stop the rioting,” said Herz-Lane in an interview prior to the trip. “Interfaith relationships are stronger now than they were before the unrest. We know the faith community has an important role to play in addressing some of the underlying problems that led to the riots  and that we can only do this together.”

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