Pope meets Anglican head

(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 21^st 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.