Archbishop of Canterbury joins Pope Leo for ‘moment of prayer’ throughout historic Vatican go to | EUROtoday

The Archbishop of Canterbury made a historic go to to the Vatican on Monday for an viewers with Pope Leo XIV, marking her first overseas engagement since turning into the primary girl chief of the Church of England and non secular head of hundreds of thousands of Anglicans worldwide.

Dame Sarah Mullally, whose appointment has prompted divisions throughout the already fractured Anglican Communion, arrived early for her assembly with Pope Leo in his non-public library.

The pair had been scheduled to proceed to the Urban VIII Chapel throughout the Apostolic Palace for what the Vatican described as a “moment of prayer.”

This viewers kinds a part of a four-day pilgrimage to Rome, throughout which she has visited main pontifical basilicas, prayed on the tombs of Saints Peter and Paul, and engaged with senior Vatican officers.

Lambeth Palace said the go to goals “to strengthen Anglican–Roman Catholic relations through prayer, personal encounter, and formal theological dialogue”.

It added the visit “aims to deepen bonds of communion, affirm a shared witness, and encourage ongoing collaboration at both global and local levels”.

The Anglican Church famously separated from Rome in 1534 following King Henry VIII’s request for a marriage annulment. Despite formal theological discussions commencing in the 1960s, significant differences persist, particularly concerning the Church of England’s decision to ordain women.

The Roman Catholic Church maintains its tradition of reserving the priesthood exclusively for men. The first female Anglican priests were ordained in 1994, followed by its first female bishop in 2015, culminating in Mullally’s groundbreaking role as the first Archbishop of Canterbury.

Her appointment though has split the Anglican Communion, whose 100 million members in 165 countries are deeply divided over issues such as the role of women and the treatment of LGBTQ+ people. Many in England and other Western countries hailed her appointment as a historic breaking of a stained-glass ceiling.

But the communion’s largest and fastest-growing church buildings in Africa belong to a conservative group referred to as the Global Anglican Future Conference, or Gafcon, which has sharply criticized her appointment and threatened a ultimate break. In the U.S., the conservative Anglican Church in North America fashioned in a break from the extra liberal U.S. and Canadian Episcopal church buildings and has signed onto the Gafcon assertion opposing Mullally’s appointment.

Leo congratulates Mullally on appointment

Leo and Mullally have already exchanged greetings, with Leo congratulating her on her set up final month however acknowledging she was taking on at a “challenging” time and that variations nonetheless divide the Anglican and Catholic church buildings.

“We also know that the ecumenical journey has not always been smooth,” Leo wrote. “Despite much progress, our immediate predecessors, Pope Francis and Archbishop Justin Welby, acknowledged frankly that new circumstances have presented new disagreements among us,” Leo wrote.

He however vowed to proceed dialogue, and in October Leo welcomed King Charles III and Queen Camilla to the Vatican, the place they prayed within the Sistine Chapel. Charles is the titular head of the Church of England.

That occasion, Oct. 25, marked the primary time for the reason that Reformation that the heads of the 2 Christian church buildings had prayed collectively.

This 12 months marks the sixtieth anniversary of the primary formal ecumenical assertion between the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches, signed in 1966 at St. Paul’s Outside the Walls basilica by Archbishop Michael Ramsey and Pope Paul VI.

Mullally for her half has expressed solidarity with Leo’s peace message, after the American-born pope was harshly criticized by President Donald Trump for his requires peace in Iran.