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Dr. Gerald Anderson, one of The Mission Society’s founders, traveled to Rome and received two rare honors.

In recognition of his important efforts promoting Chris­tian missionary work, the Pontifical Urbaniana University awarded him an honorary Doctor of Missiology degree, and he delivered  a lecture titled “A New Missionary Age.” It was the first time in the Catholic university’s 400-year history that it had endowed such an honor on a Protestant.

Dr. Anderson and his wife, Joanne, had spent nearly a decade serving in the Philippines during the 1960s. After returning to the US, he became director of the Overseas Ministries Studies Center (located near the Yale Divinity School), and co-authored and edited more than a dozen books. He retired in 2000.

The degree was not the only honor he received during his Rome visit. Every Wednesday morning the Pope holds a general audience, and the head of the university was able to arrange for Anderson to be in the front row during that morning event.

“This was held in front of St. Peter’s,” Anderson explained. “I asked a Swiss guard how many people were there, and he said, ‘50,000.’ It was a huge mass of humanity.”

Anderson was able to exchange words with the Pope as the pontiff greeted the audience.

“The opportunity to talk with him briefly I could only describe as a spiritual experience,” Anderson said. “We shook hands. I told him, ‘I’m an American Protestant evangelical minister, and you are my Pope.’ Well, he smiled, and took his other hand and put it on top of our hands, gave it a vigorous handshake and said, ‘Please pray for me.’ I said, ‘I will,’ and I do.”

Anderson’s daughter, Allison, and her husband came from Orange, Connecticut to join him in Rome for the events, as did his son, Brooks, who came from India.

“It was a wonderful experience,” Anderson said.

Note: This article was adapted from an article originally published in “The Whitney Center Observer.” Used by permission.
Photo credit: Courtesy of Fotografia Felici, Rome.