(November 21, 2009) Pope Benedict XVI received the head of Anglicans worldwide in
the Vatican on Saturday and discussed with him the challenges that Christian communities
are facing at the start of the 21st century and the need to promote forms
of collaboration and common witnessing in order to overcome these challenges. The
meeting between Pope Benedict and Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury, the leader
of some 80 million-strong worldwide Anglican Communion, was their first since the
Vatican made a special provision for Anglicans upset over the ordination of women
and gay bishops to become Catholic. A brief note from the Vatican Press Office said
during the private talks the two Church leaders talked about the recent events regarding
Catholic-Anglican relations, recalling the common desire to continue and consolidate
ecumenical relations between Catholics and Anglicans. They also recalled that the
Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission was preparing for the up-coming third
phase of international theological dialogue between the two churches. The Vatican
on Nov. 9 issued Pope Benedict’s Apostolic Constitution “Anglicanorum Coetibus", which
would establish what are called "personal ordinariates" - similar to dioceses - to
oversee the pastoral care of those who wanted to maintain some of their Anglican identity
while in communion with the Catholic Church.